We Know You
by LJ Summers
Summary: AU Bella was changed by Aro in Italy in 1900. She escapes and finds herself in the Pacific NW toward the end of WW 2. She meets Levi Uley and the two of them develop a relationship that will last for decades... And that's not the end of the story.
1. Meetings

**A/N: This story is one that has been in my head for a while. Currently mapped out to finish in twenty chapters, it is a tale that will span about sixty years. It is a story of Bella and the Quileute Werewolves…more particularly, Levi Uley. **

**But that's not all it will encompass. **

**With thanks to every wolf-girl who has encouraged me and to every vamp-girl who has read and supported my fictional forays into different AUs, I write this story.**

******_This is a work of derivative fiction. All things TWILIGHT are the intellectual property of Stephenie Meyer and/or her assignees. I write merely to entertain myself and others and receive no compensation._**

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**Chapter One: Meeting**

"We know her." The sonorous voice wasn't even breathless after the chase she'd given them.

"No, she's not one of them," Isabella heard. She was clinging to the highest part of the trunk of the Sitka spruce here on the lands of the Quileute Nation. The stench below was horrendous – nothing like it had ever invaded her nose before. Mangy fur, rotten meat, old milk and vinegar. What was worse was that it was such a strong scent that it not only hit her nose but her _tongue_. In the worst way. She wanted to vomit all over them.

A bizarre thing for a vampire to want to do. It wasn't as if she had anything to regurgitate.

The rain misted gently down on the men and wolves below her. Two of each. The wolves growled, their steps soft on the wet earth. They could have jumped into the tree, gaining purchase with their powerful limbs, but they didn't. They waited.

As did the men. Finally, the older one cleared his throat. "I'm Ephraim Black, chief of my people. Are you associated with the coven of Carlisle Cullen?"

"She's not!" the younger, less layered human voice pronounced. "She wasn't with them. There were only the two females, not a third!" The wolves' growls grew deeper and more continuous. Isabella was frozen, her fingers latched onto a branch in front of her as she tried to gauge what she could to do get away. The wolves had almost caught her!

"Quil! Enough!"

She judged it good to speak, and quickly. "I am not associated with anyone named Cullen. I hunt alone."

The wolves grew loud and started hitting the tree with their powerful shoulders. Isabella set her jaw and clung to trunk of the tree instead of the branches.

"You will not escape," the man named Ephraim said calmly. His sense of certainty was palpable to her. "We can make it fast for you, but only if you –"

"Wait!" she called desperately. "Why are the Cullens different? Why does being a Cullen matter? What is it?"

"What _color_ are your _eyes_, bloodsucker?" the younger man snarled. "We don't let your kind hunt on our land. Solo or not."

She weighed the possibilities in a wolf's heartbeat before lowering herself down so that she was closer to the men and wolves below. She made sure her eyes were widely open as she gazed on them. "Can you see my eyes, human?"

Four pairs of eyes fixated on her face and she heard them all suck in air simultaneously.

The wolves' fur smoothed a little, though she could tell they were diligent in their guard. One of them snuffled the tree trunk and seemed to want to sniff at her own skin. She was too far for him to do that. Still, she tried to look as nonthreatening as possible.

"Gold. Like the Cullens," the chief said with a nod. "Young Quil, she does not hunt humans. We should not kill her."

The one called "Young Quil" glared up at her and sneered. "Just get her the hell off our land."

Chief Ephraim Black beckoned with a motion of his head. "Come down, Golden Eyes. If you can be trusted not to slay us, I would like some news. Quil?"

Isabella's focus went to the angry youth who was still eyeing her but she found that _Quil_ was also the name of one of the wolves. A large wolf, brown with a black streak on his back, chuffed softly.

Chief Black made a vague motion with his arm. "Take your son and run back to the village if you want. Or take him for patrol. Levi and I will be fine with Golden Eyes up there."

The black-striped wolf chuffed and seemed to perform an obeisance to the chief before apparently herding his son away. The other wolf, the one who seemed to be eager to get Isabella out of the tree, made a strange sound in a combination of a whine and a growl. She had never heard it before. He – Levi, she guessed – moved away and started pacing, his black-tipped muzzle always pointed in her direction. He was, she noted, a mottled gray wolf, with at least five different shades of gray in his fur coat. It provided excellent camouflage, she would guess, with the surrounding woods. She had read in the newspapers that the men in the armed services fighting in Europe had special fighting uniforms that blended in with their environment. Something olive-hued.

The human, Chief Black, was wearing only a pair of denim trousers. His bare chest was scarred in what looked to be parallel lines. Had it been a ritual defacement, Isabella wondered, or the result of some terrible fight? His hair was cut short to his scalp and he was at least six-foot-four, she judged. He spoke with a deliberately cajoling tone. "Come down. We won't attack."

"Promise?" She felt mildly more relaxed since there were only two of them, but she knew Chief Black had been a wolf, before. He had only assumed his human form once she had been treed like the veriest raccoon. "I won't attack you, either. I just want to pass through in peace, if you don't want me hunting on your lands." Sacred hunting grounds? What did they call them, anyway?

The wolf whined a little and nudged the tree again, making the fine pine needles shiver and whisper in protest. The rain continued to mist and Bella sighed into it. She was wearing a pair of denim trousers herself, and they were getting heavy with the moisture in the air. Across her chest, coming between her breasts, was her haversack. A faded stamp said U.S. just above a circular badge with the initials CCC, and there were a few useful, capacious pockets. Isabella had pinched it from Fort Missoula two years prior. The haversack contained a dress and change of blouse and trousers. Because sometimes a nomadic vampire got stuck in the rain.

"Can you give me some room?" she asked after a period of soggy silence passed between herself and the two remaining guards at the foot of the tree.

The wolf growled but backed awkwardly away, his tail flatly parallel to the ground. The Chief stepped back to join him. Neither took their eyes from Bella. They even eyed her haversack with suspicion as she gripped the strap in one hand and touched the ground with the other to help balance her landing. She could run faster than anyone chasing her had been able to from Volterra, but her leaping and landing skills were clumsy, even after all the decades since her change.

"Thank you," she said, smoothing her hands over her wet clothing and sodden hair. The males – human and wolf – stared at her, making her even more on edge though they were no longer overtly threatening her. The rain continued to filter through the leaves of the trees, sounding like the scratchy background sound on the shellacked discs that played on the phonographs. Interesting to think of, as if she were in a radio drama on the airwaves, here near the Pacific Ocean. "I think this is as far as I can go in this direction," she mused out loud, used to having only herself to talk to for so long that, with her feet on the ground, it seemed normal to speak her thoughts as they came to her.

Her audience, however, found it odd. "What?"

She stilled and then forced herself to relax. "Sorry, Chief Black. Sorry, Levi," she added, meeting the eyes of the striped wolf who was shifting about uneasily on his paws, sniffing the air loudly. "I was thinking about phonographs."

The wolf cocked his head at her and made a chuffing sound. The man smiled a little. "Yeah, I think you can probably phase if you want."

Bella shifted her focus rapidly. "Wait. Do you have a secret language or something? Or do you speak, uh, wolf?"

The human flashed a grin with strong white teeth. "No. There is much you don't know about us, Golden Eyes." At a lupine affirmative came to her ears in a slight whine as well as a shake of a shaggy head. "We might know you better than you think."

Levi barked shortly and Bella watched as he leapt swiftly from them to hide in the trees. "What...?" she wondered, able to see a shimmering in the shaded greenery. From the distortion in the air, she saw a man emerge, naked from his hair to his feet. A man in his mid-twenties, perhaps, as humans showed aging, he was over six feet in height and had skin the color of a kind of blended granite she had seen in the mountains. A medium brown with a hint of red – provided by iron in the rock – that was warm to her touch. She remembered the color with fondness because of its warmth. It had almost felt alive to her fingertips. That was the color of the man in the woods.

"Pants!" his human voice demanded. It was deep and clear and rushing, like a river.

Chief Black snorted. "Don't go anywhere, Golden Eyes. We'll track you and kill you if you do."

"With such a charming invitation, how could I do anything but stay right here?" Bella shot back, tugging her jeans back down to her ankles and straightening the cuffs on her nearly-wet-through blouse. She heard the men adjusting clothing, heard the faint sound of the fabric shuffling as they emerged bare-chested from the mostly useless cover they had adopted.

The rain did not wash away their stench – it was just intensified by the layering moisture. "I'm Levi Uley," the newly-dressed man told her as soon as he stopped walking. His eyes were gray, surprising her. Most Indians that she had spied during her cross-country journey over the past few decades had dark eyes and hair. Levi Uley's skin wasn't as dark as Ephraim Black's, his hair was a tad less black, and his eyes were light.

Striking, even if he stank to high heaven.

"I'm Isabella. I – I don't know my last name, exactly. My identification says I'm Johnson. Isabella Johnson."

"Isabella Johnson. You are not from around here." She shook her head and the Chief continued. "You're not a Cullen, but you have golden eyes."

"Yes," she said, to reassure them – again – about her choice of food. "I – I was introduced to the, ah, usual..."

Both men lifted a hand in eerie synchronicity. Levi looked like he wanted to vomit. Bella didn't blame him. "We get it, but it's plain you don't do that now if you ever did. And if you did, Isabella Johnson, I don't want to know."

Chief Black studied her for a moment longer and rolled up on the balls of his feet. He seemed to be listening for something or someone. Bella listened, too, hearing the distant sound of the ocean, the animals in the forest, the distant howl of an annoyed wolf. The older man – Black – nodded as if coming to a decision.

"We have made a treaty with the Cullens and only with the Cullens, Isabella Johnson."

The name made her cringe because it wasn't hers. "Please, just call me Bella," she begged. "Sorry to interrupt, but that's my name. It's the only one that means _me_."

"Bella." He puffed out a loud breath. "We have a treaty," he said again. "And you're not a part of it."

"I'll go."

"Not yet. We don't know you and we need to. Levi?"

"Yes?"

"Will you stay with her while I talk to the Council?"

The light-eyed man sniffed the air and his whole face wrinkled in obvious distaste. "Okay. Where are the boundaries?"

"Keep her outside of the village, but inside the Reservation."

Bella watched, her fingers moving restlessly over the doubled-thickness of the strap on her haversack. "Excuse me? I'm right here."

Levi whipped his head around from focusing on Ephraim so that his entire attention was on her. "So? You think we want you here? We have to make sure you're safe, Isa - Bella. So you'll stay with me."

"Fine. But then I probably need to talk to you before you go talk to – whomever you're going to talk to," she said on a sigh as truths ran through her mind. "I don't want you to be in any danger because of me. I'm being tracked."

**So what do you think so far? I have written ahead so….there will be teasers if you're interested. ~LJ**


	2. Backstory

**Chapter Two: Backstory**

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who is reading! I've so enjoyed your comments! And now some of you know the answer to a particular question. How do you get a snippet at the next chapter? Well, you can always review. ;-)**

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Levi tore loose with a string of words in the traditional language of his people, Quileute. It wasn't widely spoken except by the old ones, but the Pack learned all they could. It was a secret language. When they had begun phasing into wolves again, in the manner of Taha Aki, it had become imperative that they start keeping secrets from everyone.

Even from their parents and children. But not from their imprints.

He shoved the memories deep inside himself and focused on the woman in front of him. Woman? No, she didn't smell like a _woman_. She smelled like one of _them_, damn it. A vampire. He himself had been on patrol since her first scenting. Since Linda had died two years ago, he had needed to keep himself occupied and had taken over a majority of the patrols. As many as he could handle without fading entirely into stupidity. Thankfully, there were women who had been good enough to mostly mother Josh...

He heard himself growl, "You're being tracked?" He reined in his temper. She was a bloodsucker but she hadn't known the boundaries and had hurt no one. He tried to remember that. "What the hell? Who tracks a vampire? Who hunts one of _you_?"

She tilted her head and angled her brow to look up at him with a tangible dry humor. "You guys?"

Levi pushed out an exasperated sound. "Besides werewolves."

"Vampires."

"Like you?"

Bella the bloodsucker held very still as her focus shifted to her feet – Levi had noticed she was able to hold stone-still. Still like a statue at a museum. "Not like me. I am _not_ one of them. I will never _be_ one of them. No. But yes." She paused and lifted her head to meet his and Ephraim's eyes. "They've got red eyes, the trackers."

Levi didn't know what to think about that. On the one hand, he wanted the bloodsucker _gone_. Gone and far away from his son, damn it. The presence of the Cullens had made him, Ephraim and Quil start phasing – a circumstance Levi both hated and appreciated – and even Young Quil had started. Levi had hoped that the phasing would end, though, since there were no more vampires.

Except there was. Right here in front of him. She had to leave.

"Stay." Ephraim's surprising directive made Levi jerk involuntarily. He stared at the Alpha of the Pack. Ephraim only had eyes for the bloodsucker, it seemed. The possibility made Levi twitch again. Damned stupid vampires! "Stay with Levi, you'll be safe in our territory until we decide what to do with you. How many follow?"

"Two," the female said, her voice wary and edged even in the one word.

He wondered. "Are they warriors?"

The female blinked. "Yes."

"And you're clearly not," Levi stated flatly. An unwelcome need to protect a lonely female started spiking in his gut, but he quashed it. "Look, bl – Bella–"

The barest line appeared between her arched brows as she held up her hands. "Look. I don't want anyone to be in danger because of me. If you point me in the right direction, I'll just get out of here and leave you safe, all right?"

Levi's tongue got stuck on his immediately-thought affirmative and Ephraim would have negated it anyway. "No, Bella. Let's, uh. Hm," the Chief rubbed on his jaw with his knuckles as he scanned the local trees and held private counsel in his own thoughts. "There's a cabin. I know that the rain isn't hurting any of us, but I'd be more comfortable inside."

"The trapper's cabin?" It was about half a mile in on the other side of the Reservation. "We'll need a fire, then."

"Why?" the female – Bella – asked. She gripped the strap to her haversack tightly and Levi found himself actually wincing.

"Sorry. I only meant to dry clothes."

Ephraim had the gall to laugh out loud. "Did you think we'd run across the Rez just to set you on fire? Come on, Bella. Run with us." With a subtle hand signal, Ephraim directed Levi to flank Bella while he himself led the way through the wet forest, avoiding all the homes of the villagers on their way to the other side of their land.

Levi wondered about phasing again, just in case, but Ephraim had not indicated that there would be any real danger from this vampire.

They ran, the vampire with a silence which seemed to punctuate the rhythmic breaths Levi heard from himself and Ephraim. He and his chief had run in tandem times without count. He knew how the ground felt under his paws and under his bare feet as he felt it now. Knew the sounds that should surround them. Knew the scents that meant safety versus the ones that hinted at danger.

He was surrounded by "danger signals" at the moment, but they were all associated with the vampire who had been invited to share her story with them on the Reservation. It felt all kinds of wrong in his gut but –

But he also felt he and Ephraim were doing the right thing by giving this bloodsucker temporary shelter. _ What the hell?_

Her steps were silent, more silent than the woods around them. He and the rest of the Pack had learned that their padded paws allowed them to run with a near-silence through the forest – barefoot, he did fairly well, too – but the vampire was even better at it.

"How big is your territory?" the bloodsucker asked with a puff of breath.

"Not too big. We'll be at the cabin in a minute. There's some honeysuckle that grows nearby –" Levi bit off the rest of his sentence. Linda had loved honeysuckle.

"Not too bad for an abandoned trapper's cabin," Ephraim offered, veering to the right a little. There, between a double-trunked oak and a low-branched tree of the same species, was the cabin. "And I think we're just in time."

Sure enough, the clouds seemed to start dumping bucketfuls of water on their head, through the cover of the trees. The impact wasn't so much drenching as it was annoying, Levi decided as they slowed up just in front of the cabin's door.

"Looks cozy," their "guest" said, her voice conciliatory, Levi decided. "It'll be nice to get out of the rain."

Ephraim inhaled deeply, as did Levi. "I only smell squirrel," he informed his chief. They exchanged a smile and Levi found himself cocking a smile at the bloodsucker. "I don't guess you eat squirrel?"

She eyed him narrowly, her eyes still golden. "Only when I'm really hungry."

"Come in, you two. Let's get the fire started so we can get dried off. Bella?"

With way more manners than Levi thought were necessary in dealing with a vampire, Bella was ushered into the small cabin. Her sniffing at first offended him but then he realized she was just doing as he would have done in an unfamiliar place: Getting an understanding of his surroundings through her nose.

He couldn't even remember when he didn't rely on his sense of smell. He had started phasing wolf when the Cullen coven came to the Hoquiam lands, back in 1936. He had been twenty-five at the time. In appearance, he was still twenty-five, though in actual years he was thirty-three. Though he and the others hadn't discussed it, they all were kind of planning to remain phasing until their children were adults, to keep them safe and to know that they'd be able to protect them against any threat. It was an option they had – the ability to protect – and they all planned on exploiting it to its fullest.

"Would you like to sit down, Bella?" Ephraim offered, indicating one of the two rough-hewn chairs with a wave of his arm.

Levi didn't heed her answer. Instead, he turned. "I'm going to get some wood to burn."

"It'll smoke," the chief cautioned.

"We can still dry off with it." With that, he jerked the door open and left again. There was wood still, under a rotting shelter that was set up on one side of the stone chimney outside. No mortar had been used in its construction – it was all dry masonry. Plants grew in small pockets up the stony column, but Levi didn't really worry about that. There wasn't enough for a fire, and if they got smoked out, no loss.

So what were they going to do with the bloodsucker? Why was Ephraim going to such lengths to learn about her? Well, it was good to know what threats were out there, that was one reason, Levi supposed. And if she had danger following her, it might wind up on the Pack's doorstep and that was something they had to know. Fair enough. And if she had to _feed_, she was a proven animal hunter, so it was more than likely that she wouldn't endanger their families and friends.

None of this made him less grouchy as he returned to the cabin's interior. Ephraim and the bloodsucker were seated, facing each other and conversing casually.

"So they've got POW's over there in Michigan?"

Bella nodded. "I didn't talk to them of course, but yes. They're in barracks and working. It seemed – relatively comfortable."

Ephraim stiffened and pushed himself up from the chair, back straight. "It is never comfortable to be confined, Bella. My people have been pushed to small corners of land and even when it's lush, as it is here, it's never as comfortable as it would be being able to live wherever we wished without judgment."

Bella rose too, Levi saw as he stacked the wood on the flat river rock that made up the hearth. Primitive this place might be, but it had been built sensibly a century or so ago. "Chief Black," she stammered, "I – I meant no offense. I know what it's like to be confined against my will."

Levi paused then to glance up at her. There was no light in the room, save what came in from the three open squares that served as windows, but her skin still seemed to glow faintly to his heightened senses. Wet clothes pressed against her form and it irritated him to no end that he noticed. She had set her haversack on the floor, so her hair fell in a dark wet river down her back to her waist. She smoothed a section of it off her face with a grimace as Levi determinedly refocused his attention to starting a fire. _Let Ephraim talk to her_.

"I want to hear about it, Bella. I do. And to hear who or what is following you." Thunder rolled over them and the rain started to pound hard on the aged roof of the small structure. There were broad eaves, so very little water splashed indoors. "Then I'll tell the Council and we'll see what is to be done with you."

Bella nodded, stepping to the eastern window, to the left of the fireplace. "Fair enough. I have nothing to hide."

"I'll phase then, and let my clothes dry out while you tell your story."

Both Levi and the bloodsucker snapped their heads in his direction. "What?" they protested simultaneously.

"Ephraim..." Levi began.

"Worried about being the only human with the vampire, Levi?" Ephraim teased, his good humor never too far from the surface. "I'll be right here, I promise."

Bella snorted quietly and covered her mouth as she looked again out the window. "I'm guessing you'll be all... All wolfy while your clothes dry?"

"Yeah."

"I'll just cover my eyes then."

"When I'm phased, Bella, I want to hear your story."

"Will you be able – Oh, of course. Yeah, sure. I'll tell you."

Before Levi had entirely wrapped his mind around the whole idea, Ephraim had stripped and phased and Bella had arranged the chief's clothes in front of the fire over the back of a chair. For himself, Levi felt the heavy discomfort of wet denim rubbing against his skin and wished he could get dried off, too. It helped to sit closer to the fire, so he did, while Ephraim backed away from it, nearer to the door.

The vampire remained standing, casting an occasional look at the wet canvas haversack. "I told you I don't remember my last name. They think, though, that I was about twenty when I was changed."

Ephraim was sitting on the floor, his tail curling back around his haunches, ears at attention. He was a black wolf and appeared as an ominous shadow as the flames grew in smoky intensity within the stone confines of the hearth. He made a deep chuffing sound that Levi knew was irritation, but he didn't know if it was the situation that had the Alpha Wolf irritated or the vampire's account of herself.

Levi took the chair that she had vacated, ignored the burnt-syrup-over-death smell and straddled it, not quite looking at her and not quite looking away. She irritated him but he had to listen for the good of the people.

"I don't remember anything but the pain," the vampire continued. She stood upright, her posture model-perfect as she focused her gaze on the stones above the fire. "And when I stopped burning –"

"Burning?" Levi blurted. "But I thought you couldn't survive a fire?" The legends said so, anyway.

The female angled her head to meet his eyes. Her own were distant as she spoke without passion. "The change – when one is made a vampire – is like burning for three days. The venom of the siring vampire goes through the body, burning the humanity away. We feel it all. For most of us, it is our first memory and it will never fade."

_Damn_, Levi thought. _That's a lot to survive_. His unwilling respect for her rose a few notches. He nodded slowly, wordlessly asking her to continue.

"Aro – the leader of the Volturi, the one who changed me – found that I had a gift and he wanted me to stay with them."

Ephraim chuffed with a questioning whine to the sound. Levi started to translate but the vampire understood.

"A gift. Some vampires have special abilities when they are changed. Mine is to keep my mind private. I have a shield, Aro said. A shield that kept him out of my head when he touched me. My thoughts are my own and I can't be heard or influenced through my mind through the special powers of other vampires."

"Are you, like, bulletproof or something?" Levi wondered out loud, thinking she sounded like some comic book hero. "Why would you worry about being tracked if you have a shield?"

The vampire went on to tell him how her shield wasn't like that. And then she shared about how she felt she had been used by her sire – this Aro person that Levi disliked from the first mention of his name – for experiments with his own intrusive gift of mind-reading. Then, she detailed the ways in which she tried to escape.

"I first tried in 1905. I got as far as Rome before they found me." The fire hissed as Levi added a few slender branches to it. "They brought me back and... Aro was displeased."

Levi couldn't help himself. "What happened?"

She met his dark gaze with her own darkening one. It alarmed him to see how rapidly her eyes shifted in color. "I really would rather not discuss it. It has no bearing on this situation. Just know, Levi Uley, that I would do almost anything not to have it repeated." She paused and moved to lean against the wall farthest from him. "And it was repeated. I tried again in 1909 and again in 1910. That had been foolish of me. But I did it. They were on to me by then and I barely got out of Volterra. But then..." She smiled a little and looked down at her shoes. Levi noticed that she wore lace-up sneakers. It was a detail so oddly human that it made him blink and stare at her again.

"But then what?" he whispered, caught up in her tail of rebellion. That a vampire would rebel against their own kind surprised him. In a good way. Which felt wrong to him but also right. Right that she should rebel. That she would try to live on her own.

Ephraim relaxed, sinking into a resting position like – like a dog did when at home and secure. He scratched his claws lightly on the floor in a "go on" motion that Levi had to smile at, albeit reluctantly. Weirdest thing in the world, he thought. "This is like something out of a children's book," he murmured.

"What?" Bella asked. He thought of her in terms of her name for possibly the first time and that had him shaking his head, too.

"A werewolf and a vampire and a man were in a cabin in the woods..." he said, as if he were reading a story to Joshua. "Sounds like a story for Halloween." A bright flash of white teeth caught his attention and Levi smiled in return. He couldn't seem to help himself. "So. How'd you get to the Reservation, vampire lady?"

"I stowed away," she confessed, a challenge in her eyes. They were golden again and Levi learned something he hadn't picked up from the Cullens. Black eyes did not only mean hunger. They were also an emotional indicator. He put that information in his mind to remember later. He refused, though, to answer her challenge. He only asked, "When did you do that?"

"In 1912. The ship, um, sank...?" Again, that playful challenge in her eyes. He didn't get the joke and he wasn't going to ask.

Ephraim, though, laughed in the way they had when they were in their wolf form. _I'll ask him later, or wait 'til we're both phased and get it from him,_ Levi told himself.

After a minute spent staring at her, waiting for her to continue – okay, so he felt kind of like an idiot for not asking about the ship but also he felt like he didn't want to encourage her. Hell, Ephraim was already trying to be friendly. With a _vampire_. After a minute, then, he waved his arm in his own "go on" kind of gesture. "So you got here after the ship sank and then what?" He knew vampires didn't have to breathe and he wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of rubbing it in that she could have walked across the ocean to get to America.

"Well, I've spent the last thirty years or so working my way this far." She shrugged in a self-deprecating manner that was – again – very human. "I've had some narrow misses. The trackers... The men following me?" Levi and Ephraim both nodded in their own ways. "One is named Demetri, the other James. Demetri is from Corsica, originally. James was originally from New York, if you can believe that. He was changed in the 1890's. Anyway, one or the other have them have been hunting me down periodically for the last thirty years. I am not going back to Volterra," she stated, her voice suddenly hard and flat. It reminded him of a belly-flop off one of the cliffs. Pain was conveyed in tone, but a pain so much a part of her that it didn't register in any other way. "I don't want them to come here, though. I can see you're watch-wolves or something and I don't want anyone hurt."

"Killing vampires is what we do, Bella," Levi reminded her, rising off the chair and putting more wood on the fire. Ephraim rose, too, as the sound of the rain had decreased somewhat. "We aren't afraid of two vampires. Trust me."

She studied him, then turned her focus to Ephraim, who was stretching out wolf-style by elongating his torso and stiffening his tail before kind of doing that in reverse. Then he shook his head. Levi shook his, too. Ephraim was deliberately downplaying the threat they made to a vampire, but he figured that was for Bella's benefit. "I will. Trust you, I mean. Chief Black? Do you need me to leave?"

Ephraim made a surprised sound from his muzzle and Levi chuckled. "Uh, he just wants to change, I'm thinking."

"I'll go outside."

Ephraim barked softly; Levi understood. With a sigh, cursing his still-damp denim trousers, he crossed to the door. "I'll come with you." Guard duty. This was looking to be a big pain in the butt.

The rain had slowed to a drizzle and Levi wondered when he'd get to go home to his son. Within the cabin, he could hear – and imagined vampire ears did, too. – Ephraim walking on human feet to the chair where his clothing had dried. The sounds of denim against skin, of a chair being scooted across the floor. Bella stood motionless against the side of the cabin.

"You can come in now," Ephraim called with a smile in his voice.

Levi exchanged an impassive look with Bella and they returned indoors. "Now what?" he demanded of his Alpha.

"Now you stay here. I'll go down to the Council. My guess is that Quil already has them alerted. When we have a plan, I'll come back."

"I'm starving," Levi stated.

Bella's lips twitched. "You could always hunt with me."

"No way!" both men called, disgust in their voices. "We've tried it, Bella, but it's not what we do if we have a choice."

Levi sighed loudly as Ephraim left the cabin. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"We caught you hunting on our lands," he reminded her. "Do you need to hunt?"

His stomach took that moment to rumble. They both looked at his bare midriff with a pair of smiles. "If you can stay here hungry, I can stay here hungry. It's only fair," she said. "Maybe you can tell me your story, since we're still stuck waiting together?"

"No." The denial was immediate and almost instinctive. Her smile disappeared and the brief flash of camaraderie went with it. "I'll follow my chief's example and get my clothes dry."

* * *

Chapter Three is titled…

**Naked**

Yep.

[Don't ever worry. I have rated this as T and it will remain such. I promise.]


	3. Naked

**A/N: A big THANK YOU to all of you who have been reading another "LJ Summers goes off into an AU" story. And many MORE thanks for all who have been reviewing. It's so cool to see y'all again! :) **

**Some of you have been saying that this sounds like a very different kind of story. I think it is. It IS outlined to the very last chapter and I've got some unusual things planned. Levi has not, however, imprinted on Bella. His imprint, Linda, was his wife and she died after bearing him a son. So no imprinting for them. **

_**Caution: Some violence in this chapter, revealed in a flashback.**_

_**

* * *

**_

**Naked**

Bella blinked. "Get your clothes dry. Like Chief Black. You plan on turning into a werewolf again?"

"Yes."

"Well, go ahead," she said with a wave of her hand. When his fingers paused at the top button of his jeans, she bit back a smile. "Please don't be embarrassed, Levi. I've seen naked men before. I've even seen you, more or less."

Arms akimbo, his gaze was unrelenting. "Well, only my wife has ever seen me naked _with my permission_."

"You're married?"

He grimaced, his face going mask-like in its wooden aspect. "She died about two years ago."

"Sorry," Bella murmured, ill-equipped to deal with a widowed human. She spun around instantly so that she was facing away from him. "Go ahead. I won't peek."

He grunted but then there was only a painful-sounding series of noises that came from where Bella knew him to be. The sounds of bones popping, tendons squeaking around joints, muscles tearing and reforming. The sound of his heart racing in a chest that more than doubled in size, changing the echoes of the heartbeat. Blood vessels magically lengthening and strengthening. Fur exploding from skin and skin turning into hide. The shape of the skull changing, elongating while the air shimmered around him in a vampire-audible example of power.

The pain must have been excruciating, but he did it without thought, multiple times in less than a day. On her behalf, more or less. Bella winced at the log wall of the cabin. It wasn't fair that he had had to bear so much on her behalf. Her respect for him rose a few notches in response.

When she heard him shifting uncomfortably, she slowly turned, so as not to alarm him. She hadn't seen his mottled gray fur since he'd been actively sniffing her out after they had treed her. It was disconcerting, because he sniffed again, cocking his head a little at her.

"What?" she wondered, a little amused. He made some layered chest-rumbling sound and she laughed at herself. "Never mind. We'll figure it out later, I'm guessing." Crossing the room, she picked his shorts up off the floor. "These are still damp, so I'll just spread them out to dry off, all right?"

Levi bristled and shook his head so that it swiveled about in an oddly angular manner. Bella caught his eye. "Gracious, Levi Uley. Your eyes are still – still your eyes," she murmured, stepping closer to him. The wolves eyes were not at all lupine in appearance. Indeed, the intelligence and distrust and irritation in them was absolutely all Levi. "It's reassuring," she said, moving away again and shaking out the damp denim in her hands. "So, since we're not telling any more stories tonight, I'll just set these up to dry," she said again, suiting action to her words, "and read a story on my own. Want me to read some to you?"

In answer, the werewolf growled in a disgruntled way, Bella felt. So she shrugged. "Suit yourself." Scooping her damp haversack up from the floor, she sighed. Her clothing...Well, why not? He had been married. Nothing would be a surprise, surely. She removed the dress and undergarments she had tucked away. Nothing fancy, certainly. Purchased in the last year, she only had one spare brassiere in the usual peach-pink shade and pair of white cotton panties. Utility brand manufacturing. It was deemed very patriotic and, while she shopped, Bella did not wish to stand out as being anything less than ordinary. With a certain amount of distraction, she set out the dress, the wedge heels, the nylon stockings, the undergarments.

Levi rolled up on all four paws. He towered over her, his shoulders at her eye level. With a certain spark in his gray eye, he bent his head, picked his shorts up in his teeth and moved them about three inches away from her undergarments.

"I never knew your kind had such delicate sensibilities, Levi. It's only laundry."

Still, out of respect – she was on their land – she moved her clothing and his so that his outer wear was next to her outer wear. He seemed satisfied with that and turned to settle onto his forelimbs with a self-satisfied snort, as if to say, "I got you to do it my way without even talking."

Still wearing her own damp denim, Bella nodded her concession and pulled out a wax-paper wrapped package. "Fine. Have it your way. I'm going to read _Pride and Prejudice_," she told him, folding the soft and much-creased paper and slipping it back in the haversack. "I saw the movie with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson at the movie theatre a few years ago," she went on, since the werewolf was not chuffing at her yet. "Did you see it? I was in Chicago and saw it at the 400. Maybe you've heard of it?"

At his lack of response, Bella pushed out a breath. She was really trying. "Look. I'm not thrilled to be cooped up in here with you either, you know. _Wet dog_ is not my favorite smell. And your fur may be dry, but your shorts smell like wet dog."

He snorted sharply, giving her the impression that he had smelled something distasteful as well. "I know, I stink too. I'll just...just read and ignore you and you can, I don't know. Lie down and play dead?"

He growled but settled his head again and lowered his eyelids so that she couldn't see the uncannily too-familiar eyes. His disinterest seemed clear; Bella decided not to read aloud to him. If he were going to shut her out, she would try to do likewise. Only the beating of his heart let her know he was awake and alert and catching every shift of her body as she turned the pages of Jane Austen's novel.

**[~]**

Of course, she had the text of the story memorized and read at inhuman speeds, so she was finished with her umpteenth visitation upon Austen's era before Chief Black returned from meeting with the Council. Part of her vastly capable vampire brain was monitoring Levi Uley. He had started off with eyes that watched her movements carefully. Each sweep of her index finger up the side of the novel, each tilt of her head had been followed my minute muscle movements of his surprisingly light eyes. The mottled fir rippled with his twitching as he tried to stay awake. His heart pounded rhythmically within his enormous chest.

But soon, it slowed. Soon, the musculature along his neck and flanks relaxed. His breathing deepened and he seemed even to _snore_, much to her amusement. As he did so, she experimentally moved, wanting to check her clothing.

With careful movements, wary of the werewolf's latent instincts, Isabella rose to her sneakered feet and checked her lingerie, first. The pieces were fine and dry and even warm to her touch. She smiled and moved on to her dress and slip and spare blouse. All dry. So were Levi Uley's denim shorts. Her own denim was drying decently as well, but she sighed inwardly because her current bra and panties were in no way dry. In fact they were wet and cold, having been largely kept from the warmth the fire by her outer clothing.

She was uncomfortable, period. And she could move faster than a breath if she wanted, so she decided to change while the werewolf was sleeping. In the blink of her eye, she'd tugged her blouse off, not bothering to unbutton it yet. Keeping her ears to the task of monitoring Levi's lupine heartbeat, she next unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down her thighs.

Where they snagged on her sneakers. She swore soundlessly with only the movement of her lips as her fingers made short work of the lacings. The fire was burning down to her left, and she kept her eye on one charring branch. If it broke off before she was done, she'd be caught with her pants down.

Literally.

In another of the wolf's heartbeats, she was naked and stretching to get to her panties. And the heartbeat leapt a little and he moved and –

He growled, his speed shocking even to Isabella as he came up from the floor, hackles raised all along his throat and spine. His focus was on her back, which she had turned to him without a thought of the gaping scar that he'd see, there.

"Hey!" she protested, sliding into her dress without benefit of undergarments in order to preserve what might be remaining of her modesty. "I didn't watch, you don't watch. Fair's fair. Turn around." His eyes narrowed and she rolled her own. "Come on, Levi. You don't honestly think I'm going to run away now? You've been asleep for a while, you know, and I stayed. I could have left. But I stayed. Now I'd _like_ to get _dressed_, if you don't mind."

She didn't think wolves had eyebrows, but something seemed to serve in their stead on his furry face. The muscles pushed fur up toward his black-tufted ears and she watched, unwilling fascinated by these small movements. Finally, she raised her own eyebrows. "Well? Privacy? Please?"

He leaned his head down a little to sniff at her middle, as if seeking her Volturi-created deformity, and then – with deliberate effort – snorted near her head.

"Oh! That was so rude!" she snapped, moving to push him lightly away from her. Her hands went to the wedge-shaped line of his jaw and his growl stopped her from actually pushing.

Instead, he froze, the rumbling sound trapped in his chest and not making it out his muzzle. She froze, her fingers plunged into the heated fur of his face. Coarse, but the idea of strength was conveyed in the fur, she felt. "You're togged to the bricks with this, aren't you?" she whispered. The slang was from the 1930's, but she didn't think it'd be entirely out of Levi's understanding. It was a compliment to his fur, actually. "Nice."

He chuffed and jerked his head away, turning his body around in a slow, deliberate circle and sitting to face the darkest corner farthest from the hearth. He chuffed again and swept his dark gray tail along the dusty floor.

And waited. As if to say, "Get on with it, already."

So she did. With a shrug and a few quick slithering motions, the dark blue dress was off and she did her best to pull on her bra and panties before her dress. This time, she took the moments necessary to adjust the buttons and the pointed collar with its tiny floral motif. The cloth bow was tied about her waist before Levi grew impatient enough to twitch even the smallest muscle along his back.

"Done," she told him softly while bending down to arrange her mostly dry jeans and blouse and her still cold and damp underwear in front of the fire. "I'm just going to swap Austen for my hairbrush, if you don't mind," she explained as she scooped up her bag by the overstitched strap.

He watched every move she made, following her motions with deliberate attention as she brushed through her long hair, section by section.

Feeling uncomfortable, she actually managed to bungle transferring the brush from her left hand to her right. It clattered on the old wooden floor. And the werewolf...well...he laughed. Making this strange aspirated sound from his throat, his eyes widened before narrowing under the pressure of a definite smile that tugged at the far edges of his black lips, exposing teeth that Bella knew for sure could rip chunks of flesh from her body with greater pain than Aro had inflicted upon her the second time she had been caught.

**[+] 1909 [+]**

"I cannot touch your mind, young Isabella, and Jane cannot reach you, nor can Alec," her sire had murmured, sounding almost gleeful as he recited the protections her gift gave her. "Now, my dear, the _last_ time you tried this, I was sure that being deprived of your limbs for a day and having to wait for them to find you again – though quite amusing, really – would have taught you the futility of trying to escape from me. I'm hurt, Isabella," he went on, pouting in that almost-sincere way of his. "Hurt that you would not be happy here, in our lovely home. We let you feed on those disgusting animals, I let you hunt alone again, trusting you, Isabella..." he went on, reciting the litany of her "deviant" behaviors before running one powerless finger around her face and neck.

She shuddered in the giant Felix's granite grip, but would say nothing. It wouldn't matter at this point. She had begged – like a child, she had begged – the last time and it had done no good. This time, she would keep her pride. Aro's scarlet eyes met her own and he smiled at her. Just before ripping her dark dress from her in one dramatic sweep of his arm. The bodice all but disintegrated, lace flying away and tiny hooks clattering to the floor as she stood before him without even a chemise. She was not skilled in how to dress like a human at the time and had only been thinking of the externals, not all the trappings of human females and their complicated ensembles.

Bare-breasted, she wanted to just go up in flames, right there in Aro's circular feeding chamber. All eyes were on her, Jane's dancing with delight at her obvious shame. Aro didn't touch her, though. He just pursed his lips and hummed to himself. "I could remove the left one, you know. Or the right. Only one, of course, for that would be hard to hide and you'd have to stay with us, wouldn't you, dear? But no," he went on in a sinister, avuncular manner that unnerved Isabella more than any thought of limb-loss he could inflict upon her. "No, because I feel certain only one more lesson will be necessary and I'd hate to cause such a drastic disfiguration. Someday, young one, you might meet your mate and I'd be sorry to deprive him of your current physical perfection." Then, he touched her. "So, right here. Right here below the ribs on your back and around to the front. That will do. Oh, this is going to hurt, I promise you," he assured her, his face set in lines of solemn dignity.

"Alec?"

With a wicked, lascivious grin, the boy vampire flashed to her side. "Yes, Master?"

"Tear out a strip about as long as my hand, would you?"

"With my teeth, Master?"

"Oh yes, I really do think so."

There was no sound, not even the rustling of fabric, as Alec bent over and breathed on her stone flesh, determined to make her squirm if he could. She stiffened instead, refusing to react as he bit his sharp, sharp teeth into her body and pulled...slowly...a strip from her exactly as long as Aro's hand from his fingertips to the heel of his palm.

Pain shot through her, though. Pain and pain and pain and Alec knew it and relished it. Jane drifted closer, watching Isabella's venom pool to heal this deep wound,to bind her flesh back to her...

And then Caius appeared with a torch and Isabella cried out at last as this strip from her own body was fed to the licking flames of the fire...

**[+] 1944 [+]**

The branch snapped and crackled and Bella jumped five inches into the air. "What the...?"

The werewolf shimmered and she spun immediately, not wanting to deal with him being hostile while her memories had been brought to the forefront of her mind. She could still feel the pain of the punishment.

"What the hell was that, Bella?" Levi demanded, apparently as soon as he had human vocal apparatus with which to speak. "No, don't turn around yet, just – what the hell?"

"This?" she asked while rubbing her fingers lightly over the permanent gouging of her flesh underneath the dark floral dress she wore. At the man's spoken affirmative, she sighed. "Punishment number two."

She heard his steps cross the distance between them and turned to meet him face to face. She straightened her shoulders, not wanting to see any pity in his expression.

"And these are the people who want you back?"

"Yes."

He opened his mouth as if to say more, but they could both hear the approach of two men to the cabin. Levi hurried to open the door, surprising Bella. "Ephraim. Quil. What's the word?"

Bella nervously smoothed out her hair and wished for a ribbon to hold it back from her face as the werewolf-smelling men entered the cabin. Between the three of them, it was as if there was no space left for a diminutive vampire and she pressed herself against the wall near a window. Dawn was breaking in this part of the world and she could see its rays touch on the tallest tips of the pines outside.

The men shuffled uneasily, arraying themselves in a sparse semi-circle in front of her. Quil nodded. She didn't recognize his human face, but she knew who he was because Levi had identified him. "Mr. Quil," she murmured.

"Miss Bella," he offered in return. No handshakes, just acknowledgments. That was really more than she had expected from him. At least his son wasn't with him.

"Bella," Chief Black began, crossing his arms in front of his fully-clothed torso. "It's been decided that you may stay on our land. For the time being. We will figure out a way to mask your presence here to keep you from those who are following you."

Astonished, Bella could only gape at the men before recovering and nodding. "Thank you. I – I will stay away from your village and avoid any humans in the area."

"Good, because that was the next thing," Quil inserted. He slid his hands into the worn front pockets of his trousers. "There's a logging town around here called Forks."

"It's not a town yet," Levi told her with a glint of humor flashing in his eye. "But they're working on it."

Tension rippled between the men but Bella ignored it. It was likely related to the town and she had no intention of showing herself in it while she stayed in the area. "And?"

"And they're loggers, mostly. We just want your word you'll leave 'em alone, like the Cullens did."

"You mean, not hunt them for food." The mere idea made her grimace. "I won't. I promise."

Ephraim nodded. "All right. Then Quil will stay here with you for the time being and he'll run you along our borders and you can hunt the animals if you've a mind to. Even if he leaves, though, one of us will be around. Just figure that even if you're not being...er..."

"Babysat?" she supplied wryly.

"Yes. You're being watched anyway."

"I understand. I do, Chief Black. Quil. Levi. I understand and – and I thank you for allowing me to stay for a while. I won't let you regret it."

"Ephraim, I need to get back to Josh," Levi said. "And we need to talk," he added, with a quick glance at Bella. She knew, by the flickering of his gaze, that he was wanting to share with his chief what he had learned about her "punishment" at the hands of the Volturi.

That was going to be so embarrassing.

Levi and the chief left her with only cursory farewells. Quil gestured to her clothes that were still on the hearth. "You can leave them, if you want. Part of the deal," he added with a kind sort of smile, "was that you can have the cabin as, as a headquarters, or whatever you Cold Ones call it."

A new wave of astonishment rushed over her and Bella felt her eyes burn with venom. "Oh... Oh, Mr. Quil," she whispered, almost speechless with self-consciousness and pleasure. "Oh. I don't know what anyone else would call it, but I'll – I'll call it home." _For now._

"That's fine, then. Come on. I've had a long night and I want to get this part out of the way. Ready to run?" he asked.

Bella left her new home with an internal wrench. She felt that something had changed mightily since she had last stepped foot outside of it, but left it until later to puzzle it out. Vampires had an eternity for puzzle-solving.

* * *

**So…is Aro the creepiest guy in the vampverse or what?**


	4. Memories

**Memories**

**A/N: The cabin gifted/loaned to Isabella in this story is the same one I have brought into play in my story, The Imperative. Just for the minutiae buffs out there...**

**A huge thank you to you wonderful readers who share your thoughts and speculations with me. I LOVE hearing from you! I hope you're enjoying your teasers! :)**

**Levi and Chief Black left Bella running the borders with Quil….**

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**

"We could just phase and run back, you know," Ephraim reminded him with a laugh.

Levi wasn't sure he was up to phasing yet. He knew that the minute they did that, the Alpha Wolf would get an eyeful of one naked vampire. A surprisingly _well-formed_ naked vampire who had disturbed him more than he wanted to deal with right at that moment. "I don't want us to have to carry our clothes in our teeth. It's not like anyone will worry about us running if they see us."

The chief shrugged and they took off at a quick pace, their bodies weaving effortlessly between the trees. "So, what is it?" Ephraim caught his eye. "Did the Cold One tell you about the ones who are tracking her?"

Levi didn't let his step falter. "Yes. No. Well. She told me about the ones she escaped from, who sent the trackers after her." He dodged around a dew-heavy pile of dead leaves. The memory of the gouged scar was firm in his mind. The way the firelight had cast unnatural shadows on her otherwise flawless...stone skin.

Damn. He hated that he was thinking this kind of thing. _I loved Linda. She was my imprint, dammit. I have no business even –_

His thoughts were interrupted and Levi reminded himself to be grateful when Ephraim puffed out, "The Volturi? In Italy?"

"Them, yeah." He could smell breakfast. They were nearing Ephraim's house and his wife was cooking already. Coffee cake... Cinnamon and sugar and nuts... Levi's stomach rumbled loudly. He cast a sheepish look at his Alpha. "Sorry."

"You know Annie will have fed Joshua. There'll be leftovers."

"I know. Thanks again, by the way." He slowed his run, breathing more deeply as they approached the small house where Ephraim, Annie and their children Thomas and Christina lived. Chrissy – what they called the baby – wasn't quite crawling yet. "Should we talk about this later?"

Reaching the house, Ephraim paused on the stoop. "Nope. Over coffee. I don't know about you, Levi, but I am one tired wolf."

Levi felt heat under his skin – embarrassment made manifest in his own involuntary response. "Sorry. Yeah. Okay."

Ephraim didn't even try to hold back his smile. Poised with one hand on the doorknob, he asked, "What the hell were you up to, last night? Did you fall asleep or something? On guard duty?" Incredulous humor sparked in the chief's dark eyes.

"Let's just get some breakfast, huh?"

A laugh rumbling in his chest, Ephraim opened the door. "Annie? We're back!"

"Daddy!"

Pure joy shot through Levi in that moment – the moment his sturdy-limbed, black-eyed son shouted for him. "Josh! C'mere, buddy!" His entire focus narrowed to the chubby cheeks and spiky hair of his little boy. Catching him up, Levi nuzzled his head, his throat, breathing deeply in of the scents of_ little boy._ _So much better than bloodsucker..._

"Daddy! Had brehfuss. Your turn!"

The old wooden floor creaked a little as Levi balanced on the balls of his feet to crouch down so that Joshua could return to running around Annie's living room. "Yeah, my turn." His stomach was churning and growling in anticipation by now.

Ephraim's enhanced hearing caught the noises and Levi saw him chuckling. "Eat, eat. We'll talk. You know Annie's trustworthy," the Alpha said at a volume inaudible to human ears. "So get your coffee and roll and come out back with me."

Annie claimed Levi's attention next. "Welcome back. Is our...guest...all right?"

After exchanging a puzzled look with Ephraim, Levi nodded. "Yes, she's fine."

"She?"

With a snort, Levi poured himself a cup of coffee from the old Farberware pot Linda had found for them years ago when she had been scrounging like she did... He pushed down the memories. "She. Yes. She's a Cold One, as you've heard," he confirmed in low tones. Thomas and Josh were playing in the back bedroom and Chrissy was in her high-chair, banging a spoon on the metal tray. It was loud, but that wasn't a bad thing, Levi judged. "She's out with Quil now. Hunting, I guess. She was pretty hungry, too."

"Yeah?" Annie darted a glance to her baby, who dropped the spoon and started beating on the tray with her palms. "Does she, um, need anything?"

Ephraim's face broke into the broadest grin Levi had ever seen on him. The chief pulled his wife to him in a tight embrace, pride almost visibly spiking from his body. "No," he murmured.

"She's actually got a complete change of clothes and a book," Levi said before blowing a cooling breath over his cup of coffee. The image of her reaching for her clothing was not one he wanted to replay over and over, but he couldn't seem to help himself. He focused on that awful smell, instead. Sharp, harsh, burnt sugar over decay. Death. But still, there was something else, too. Something less unpleasant. Floral, maybe._ I have to push this out of my head before I phase again. C'mon, Uley_.

As if sensing his discomfort, Ephraim caught his eye and released his wife from his embrace. "Let's take this outside."

The boys were still roughhousing in the back bedroom, so Levi followed Ephraim. They kept silent until they settled into the newly-painted, red slatted chairs. The morning was growing brighter. No clouds were sliding overhead yet. They had apparently dumped whatever moisture they had been carrying overnight. Wet summer mornings were not too bad, really. The scents of so many kinds of green were everywhere. Pine and oak and grass... "Thanks again, Eph. I really appreciate it."

The chief waved off his gratitude with a small motion of his coffee cup. "You did us a favor, staying with the Cold One. So what did she tell you?"

"Those bloodsuckers chasing her – man, what they did to her I wouldn't do to my worst enemy. Even a bloodsucker." He cocked his head. "I'd _kill_ a bloodsucker, but I wouldn't hurt them like they did her." He told Ephraim about the gouging in the vampire's side. "She said it was a punishment."

"You saw it?" Ephraim sipped at his heavily-creamed coffee and eyed him narrowly. "How'd that happen?"

"I woke up at the wrong time," Levi confessed in a whisper. Shame and that weird protective feeling pushed to his skin.

Ephraim spewed his coffee to the rock-imbedded earth. "What?"

Damning the consequences, Levi shot back the rest of his steaming beverage, feeling it burn the skin on the roof of his mouth, scalding his uvula and screaming down his throat. He deserved it. "Look. It was warm, quiet, and my shorts were drying. She was reading, that's all. Some old book. I dozed off. Woke up when I sensed her moving – it wasn't like I'd have let her get away."

Eph was still wiping coffee off his skin, swearing under his breath. "I know, but what the hell, Levi?"

"She wasn't going to go anywhere. She could have, but she didn't, you know?" It itched to say it, but he did, anyway. "She's not bad, for a Cold One. She's like a Cullen."

Ephraim snorted. "Fine. But we'll still keep an eye on her."

"Yeah."

A howl sounded from the west and both men jerked to their feet as if pulled on invisible strings. "Young Quil," Ephraim breathed. "Bloodsucker howl."

Levi swore in his mind, worrying beyond reason that the newest hot-headed member of the Pack had somehow found Bella.

_Rip, shred, destroy! _

The words had pulsed in Young Quil's mind when they'd been chasing the scent of vampire the day before. Even when they'd stopped, before Young Quil and Ephraim had phased – the former reluctantly – the youngest member of the Pack had been determined to end the existence of the creature they had treed.

Well, so had he, Levi admitted to himself. Until he stopped and smelled her scent on the bark of the tree. It was weird, really. He hated the smell of vampire – it burnt his nose. But her scent wasn't entirely off-putting. Just mostly. The rest of him was wanting to figure out what it was she smelled like beyond bloodsucker.

All of the memories gathered, but his mind was directed to the second howl. It was Quil. And he was supposed to be with Bella. Bella was supposed to be running the borders today to learn where they were. If Quil were with Bella, then the bloodsucker Young Quil had found –

"Let's go!"

Abandoning their coffee cups, the men dashed to the tree line, unbuttoning whatever clothes they were wearing and leaving them on the low branches of the trees.

_Annie will get them. She'll check on us and see them and know_, Ephraim reminded Levi. _Let's get to Young Quil._

The rest of their thoughts were sense-communications. Scents in the air and evaluations of who or what had been with them. They were running apart from one another, taking divergent routes but both on the way to Young Quil.

_This one IS red-eyed! C'mon! He's heading to the cliffs! _

Levi saw the trees rushing by their younger Pack brother, heard the sound of the surf through Young Quil's ears much more clearly than he did through his own. He himself was running more or less parallel with their southern border while Ephraim headed on a more northerly track.

_Quil? Where's Bella?_ Levi wondered as he ran to intercept the black-haired bloodsucker Young Quil had found. The whip-thin vamp had dark clothing and his hair was long, pulled back in a line that streamed out behind him like a galloping horse's tail.

_I sent her back to the cabin. She killed a deer. _ Quil shared the image of the vampire - in a blue dress and wet sneakers, of all things, running and leaping to the back of a buck and breaking the spine with a muffled crack.

_I can't believe you're letting her stay in the trapper's cabin_, Young Quil snorted, racing furiously after the red-eyed Cold One. _What are we doing this for? Why not take them _all_ in? _

The black tail of hair whipped around as the vamp changed course. With a breathless sounding howl, Levi veered north to cut him off before he hit a possibly-occupied beach. The ocean's wind brought the disgusting odor of bloodsucker to adulterate the fresh, healthy salt of the air. _ Got him!_

Ephraim had turned to join them, heading south. Somehow, in the Pack Mind, they were able to keep all the different points of view straight. He knew Young Quil's mind and sight and what he smelled and was able to differentiate from Quil's and Ephraim's senses. Levi remembered going nearly insane at first, but years of familiarity made it natural for him to understand who was saying what and where they were.

The bloodsucker paused, no doubt smelling him, Levi thought. He checked quickly about, making sure that, in the sunshine of this early morning, no humans were on the beach. And he saw no one. The fishing boats had gone out to sea already and it wasn't yet warm enough for the locals to go investigate the tide pools. He growled deep in his chest at the new vampire.

_Is this one of them? How can we tell? If he's a tracker, we can kill him and get her the hell off our land! _ Young Quil arrived, leaping behind the bloodsucker before it could run or jump away. Ephraim arrived, Quil only seconds behind, his great chest heaving with his mighty exertion. Quil's son had subdued the vampire. Who wasn't, apparently, too much of a warrior, because he had frozen upon seeing the Pack. Maybe he'd never heard of werewolves?

Ephraim visualized Bella in the cabin. _Go, Levi. Get her and bring her back. We'll hold him here_.

The chief was not using his Alpha voice, but Levi didn't hesitate to obey. Knowing that he'd hear and see everything that happened with his Pack brothers, Levi gulped in a lungful of air as he leapt away. He howled, thinking that maybe he could get Bella's attention.

_How is she going to know what you sound like? _ Quil wondered. The black-striped wolf was standing on the leech's legs, using his heavy weight to help pin the creature to the rocky soil.

_I don't know. Maybe she'll know it's not a regular wolf?_

_Oh, because you sound so frightening?_ Quil sarcastically wondered from where he sat on the vampire.

_No, because he's –_

And then, the image Levi would have suffered _much_ not to have in his head flew from his mind to the others'. Bella reaching for her clothes while firelight danced over her stone skin. It had been for only a single thump of his heart, but he couldn't seem to shake it. Nor the effect it had had on him.

He ran, trying to push the discomfort away. Remembered the stink of her instead and commented into the strange mental silence, _Give me a break, guys. She reeks and I'm exhausted. Why don't you worry about the vampire under your paws and give the one in the cabin a break?_

Young Quil snarled, complaining about the taste in his mouth. And Levi knew it wasn't just because he had his jaws on the vampire they were holding captive. The one who hadn't spoken, yet. Perhaps he didn't think he had to _speak_ to a pack of wolves. A pack of wolves the size of small horses.

_Idiot bloodsucker._

Levi's attention was recaptured by the scene before his eyes instead of the scene in front of the Pack's. The cabin wasn't far. Bella's scent was nearby. He had gone from considering her a bloodsucker worthy of hunting down to a person with a name in less than twenty-four hours.

_I need my head examined._

_Yeah! But I don't guess anyone we know is a werewolf head-shrinker! _

_Thanks, Quil,_ he told his old friend. _You're a lot of help._

_Just bring her back, already. I've had a damned long day and night. You got a nap, if I read your mind right. _

_You did._

_So get her, let's kill this thing and let me get some sleep!_

_Aw, Daddy-O, gettin' old?_

Levi snorted at Young Quil's mocking question as he himself reached the small trapper's cabin with its bits of green growing in some of the lower corners, between the logs. A moon-pale face appeared in the shadowy recess of the nearest window.

He barked.

The white face smiled with an inhuman alertness before disappearing. Bella opened the door on the cabin. "Levi! I thought for sure you'd be – oh, the howling."

_Yes, so come on_, he thought fruitlessly. He jerked his head back the way he'd come.

"What's wrong? Is Quil hurt? Is everyone okay?'

Quil invaded mentally. _What does she think she could do if I was hurt?_

_No idea. Lemme get her over there._ Inwardly grimacing, Levi stepped closer to her and bent down to touch his nose to her upper arm, nudging it. _Let's go!_ She was wearing a red, long-sleeved shirt with her jeans and sneakers. He remembered it from last night. The spare shirt she'd had drying on the stone hearth.

_I need to wash out my brain!_ Ephraim joked, his body still lying over the vampire. _Hurry up, Romeo!_

The idea made Levi shudder so that fur rippled up and down his skin. Bella noticed. "What's wrong? Oh, you need me to follow?" she asked when he made his nose touch her arm again. That scent! It burned! He didn't remember it being so strong before. Maybe because he'd been surrounded by it for hours. "Well, let's go!"

He barked and turned and she followed at speeds that would have had them looking like two blurs in the shadowed forest if any humans happened to see them. _Probably think we're ghosts_, he mused.

_She's white enough. Those vamps give new meaning to the term Pale Faces_, Ephraim said in an effort to lighten their grim mood. The vamp was getting restless now. His thin features working, finally talking in a language none of the Pack understood.

Maybe it was Italian.

It had been Quil who had originally made the joke, back when the Treaty with the Cullens was first being discussed. Pale Faces indeed. Ephraim growled at the pale face under his body now.

Levi still didn't know what the bloodsucker they had was saying, but Bella was talking too. Her speed was such that they were already more than halfway back to trees that lined up near the edge of the cliff, where the intruder was.

Bella murmured as they ran, "Did you _bark_, back there?"

He needed his breath, even if she didn't, so he didn't answer.

She continued. "That was...odd. I need to learn how you fellas sound, I guess. I'm not used to distinguishing between howls. Still, now I know yours and I know Quil's. He phased right in front of me," she commented, sounding like she was in school, somehow. Well, she _was_ as bookworm. "Oh, I smell – the others," she whispered. "And someone else!" Abruptly, she halted with a surprisingly clumsy jolt, kicking up loose stones. "Who is it?"

Impatient, seeing the increasing movements in their captive, Levi grabbed Bella's hand in his teeth and pulled her.

She didn't want to go, but she did. "Fine, get your teeth off me. They hurt."

Remembering the gouge in her side, he immediately dropped her hand and they approached the Pack.

"Who are you?" Bella demanded.

The man half-tore himself out of Young Quil's jaw. Levi watched his brother tense. What if Bella fought on the side of the newcomer?

_We'll take her down if she helps him hurt us_, Ephraim told Levi. _Or at least rip off an arm and send her away._

_Don't blame you, but she won't._ He just felt that that was the truth.

Quil agreed with him. _She's already calling her cabin a home. She'll be on our side_, he judged.

Levi didn't understand the string of words the captive leech let loose but Bella snorted. "What, they're sending out...bounty hunters for me? That's ridiculous!" Then, noting the captive's puzzled expression, she repeated herself in that strange language and Levi decided he was right; it was Italian. He wondered if it was the tracker, but decided that it wasn't, since Bella hadn't appeared to know him.

"No," she said, her voice flat. _More_ Italian. Then, Bella reached to touch Levi and he snarled before she said, "No. And they _will_ kill you."

Ephraim's command was succinct. _ Do it._

In a breath, Young Quil ripped off the intruder's head and the rest of them helped. Bella, her lips pressed tightly together, watched before turning to collect wood for a fire.

"Thank you," she murmured as she stepped away.

Levi felt the surprise in the other three members of the Pack as they watched her. Only Ephraim snuffed in her general direction. _ You're welcome_.

* * *

**For the record, the vampire who was after Bella was not one of the Usual Suspects. He was just a nomad who was trying to get a favor from Aro. **

**See you next week! ~LJ**


	5. Violations

**Violations**

**A/N: A big hello to everyone who's reading and a grin from Levi to all who review! I so enjoy hearing from you. Thank you for joining me on this journey into a new AU.**

**Warning: References (non-specific) to rape in the flashback. Not graphic, but it's there and it's set off by the year markers, so skip it if you need to, okay?**

**We left Bella and the Pack after they killed a bounty hunter sent to track down Bella…**

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* * *

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The plume of incense-laden, lavender smoke wasn't thick or overwhelming, but the odor was strong enough to make Bella wrinkle her nose and mimic the werewolves with a strange rubbing of her tongue inside her own mouth. It was a pointless exercise; the taste of the bounty hunter would not be eliminated that way. She would just have to wait for the smell to die down or her own venom to eradicate the nasty after-effects.

A light haze of regret wafted over her like a piece of delicate fabric, but Isabella brushed it away. "Not going to worry about it," she murmured to herself. Ephraim and Levi both swung their muzzles in her general direction but she shook her head and they returned to making sure all the pieces of Amintore were added to the fire. Not a fingertip or a shoelace would be left behind. The bounty hunter was old news, now.

"Any more like him following you?" Young Quil had phased while she was watching the remnants of Amintore blow lightly away. She glanced at him while he adjusted himself and the buttons of his shorts. "Because that leech? Absolutely not _even_ a challenge." His smile was crooked and cocky. "And you? That'll be _you_ the first time you step out of line," he added with that arrogant expression still in place.

The other three wolves growled, directing their furry faces in the young man's direction. Quil had filled her in on their run earlier, telling her that his son was fifteen years old. Problem was, he looked to be in his early to mid-twenties and that made his adolescent attitude more intimidating. Even if Isabella was his senior by almost fifty years.

"It's hard, when we first start phasing," the older Quil had explained as they jogged with less speed for a hundred yards or so. "See that rock? That's the border to the land the Cullens had when they were here in the thirties. When we started phasing."

"Changing into wolves?"

"Yes," he said, running one of his hands through his short, dark brown hair as they moved. "My son was only a boy when that happened for me. I was in my thirties. Can you imagine that? To have my life upturned and overwhelmed with this at that age? Our stories –"

He had cut his narrative off abruptly and increased his pace. "I just wanted you to know that my son only just started phasing. He may look to be an adult, but really he's a teenaged boy. And he thinks like one, even if he doesn't look like one. And young wolves, Miss Bella, are volatile."

Bella stared at that teenaged boy through the cloying smoke of burnt vampire and frowned. "You've seen the color of my eyes, Young Quil," she reminded him. "I'm not going to cause any problems for you on that score."

He rolled his shoulders in a show of strength and turned to kick dirt on the ashes of the burnt bounty hunter. Bella was relieved that the really dangerous hunters or trackers hadn't come. Felix...

The shudder was involuntary. She cast her eyes down at her shoes and her thoughts tracked elsewhere. "I'm sorry," she told the pack members. "Sorry to have brought this on you."

She heard the series of powerful sounds, the cracking and bending and changes in a heartbeat as the elder Quil took his human form again. Out of respect, she turned her face into the ocean breeze, making sure that they all knew she was not watching any of them. Levi had his issues about nakedness and she wasn't going to seek to offend them. They had been so generous with their time and had even give her a temporary home. The burden of showing respect was upon her shoulders, but she welcomed it gladly. It was – nice. Nice to have people who knew who and what she was, for whom she didn't have to present a façade.

Even if they were instinctively her enemies and smelled like the worst offal anywhere.

"Miss Bella," Quil said in his deep human tones, "we had a good meeting last night and – after I get some sleep," he added with a wry yawn that had his son snorting and lupine Ephraim and Levi aspirating in their strange laughter, "maybe we can figure out what to do."

"I won't stay here permanently. I don't want to impose. I can go –"

"Go where?" the eldest of the men asked, stepping toward her, around the pile of dirt-covered ashes. "You've run out of continent, young lady."

It was Bella's turn to snort, then. With an abrupt laugh, she shook her head. "I'm older than you are, Mr. Quil. Old enough to be your mother," she added with a smile. "I'll not impose longer than I have to. To figure out where to go next." And she'd need to find a way to earn some money, too, to get a new outfit and haversack and personal hygiene products. She could scour her skin and hair with the sand from the beach, yes, but it wasn't what she preferred.

"So long as it's off our land," Young Quil groused.

"Enough," his father insisted. "We'll talk more later. Son? Let's go home." And the two men loped off into the cover of the trees, their offense odors floating off with them.

Bella turned her attention more fully on Chief Black, who was still a black wolf, and Levi, whose mottled gray fur was hit by occasional bands of light, making him seem more otherworldly, to her eyes. The wolves communicated with one another, she had gathered. In some secret way she didn't fully understand they conferenced and then the black wolf stepped slowly toward her. Ducking his head, he nudged her shoulder with his muzzle before seeming to sneeze.

She had to laugh. It was so obvious that he was indicating she stank to his way of thinking. To show she understood she leaned in closer to his fur, but he leapt away, his Ephraim-eyes narrowed at her.

Pain lanced through her and she held up a palm. "Sorry. I know I smell bad to you." That she was going to mimic his own snuffling/sneezing pattern seemed stupid, only a moment later. It hurt to know that she wasn't trusted – but she understood. They had only known each other less than twenty-four hours. She was a vampire and they had hunted her only yesterday.

Still, it hurt. She tried to hide it with a quick breath to steady herself before moving her head to look each werewolf in the eye. "So I'll just head back to the cabin, then? I know, I'm being watched and all that. I won't forget it, I promise."

Ephraim chuffed and lifted his nose as if to nod at her. Levi whined in his throat, crossing the burning place and the pebbled, sandy ground to push lightly against her shoulder as his chief had done. Bella didn't quite understand why she wanted to bury her fingers in the fur of his neck, but she did not touch him. She had the night before, but not in the light of day. Ephraim had made it clear that she was not a friend, no matter how apparently accepting they were of her for now.

Instead, she offered the gray-eyed wolf half a smile. "I'll make it back on my own. Quil said you had a son. I bet he's waiting for you."

The sort-of-eyebrows shot up on Levi's face. He moved his head again and nudged her one more time, making some kind of yipping sound at Ephraim before he tore off into the trees. She watched him run off, waiting until the sounds of his leaving were absolutely dissipated before she turned again to Ephraim. The distant surf did a poor job of filling the uncomfortable silence that stretched between herself and the Quileute werewolf.

"I'm sorry," she told him softly. "I feel like I've put you and your – your wolf pack in danger. I thank you so much for – for handling Amintore. I'll try to leave. I will. I'll find a job, earn some money and get a few things together and leave your lands as soon as I can, Chief Black. Before the real trackers show up."

It felt perfectly natural for her to be talking to him so freely. Ephraim had, in general, put her at her ease so maybe that explained it. At last, he seemed to relax a little and maybe he even sighed, his breath coming out in a heavy gust that smelled of – of vampire venom. He must have ingested some and her stone innards clenched at the thought.

The enormous wolf cocked his head and cast his eyes in the direction of the small cabin Quil had said was hers for now. With a nod, she turned from the leader of the wolves and ran home.

**[~]**

She had only been able to bring down one deer since she had started out the day before, what with one thing and another, and twenty-four hours after she was chased by a pack of werewolves, Isabella was running on the tribal lands again. She thought she was alone – but she had noted that when in their human forms the werewolves didn't smell quite as strongly to her as they did when they were all...furry.

There was a deer somewhere nearby. She could use a couple, really. It had been kind of a stressful day, even for a vampire.

**[+]1900[+]**

Fear, panic and _pain _had wiped Bella's memory clean upon awakening as a vampire and when she was offered a source of food to assuage the excruciating burn in her throat, she accepted without thought.

Her conscience had kicked in as soon as the initial bloodlust had dissipated, leaving her in the middle of broken, bloodless bodies. "No!" she cried. "What have I done?"

"Eaten, young one," a giant had murmured. The voice triggered something in her and she crouched, growling. "Relax. I won't touch you now. Not unless you _ask_," he had added, a smile in his crimson eyes.

Her thoughts were racing, scattered like dandelions in a wind, but she grabbed one and struggled to hang on to it. "Now? What happened? Did you do this to me?" With a jerky motion, she indicated her throat and strange skin. There was no heartbeat in her chest. No feelings except curiosity, anxiety. Liquid sloshed within her, but she mostly noticed the horrible burning was soothed.

"Change you? No, Isabella."

"Isabella. My name is Isabella?" At his nod, she went on. "What's your name?"

"Felix. Aro asked your name before he changed you."

"And you?" She felt fear, now, but also understood instinctively that she would be able to run from him if she had to. When she shifted to the closest door – an ancient thing of knotted wood and oiled iron – the giant man made no move to stop her. He only smiled again. "You said you wouldn't touch me now?"

As if he were discussing something as common as washing windows – though why she thought of windows and washing them, Isabella couldn't have said – Felix explained himself. "You see, Little One, your skin is strong, now. You're powerful beyond mere human imagining." He flexed one thickly muscled arm. "We pride ourselves on our...durability. Only flame can truly hurt us, you see. But this is a problem on occasion, especially when one is changed before one has had the chance to...experience certain things."

Completely uncomprehending, Isabella shook her head. "What?"

"You were a maiden, little _bella_. If you went into this life like that, mating would be – well, I've deflowered one vampire in my existence and I have no wish to do that again, to be blunt." She had no words, just stunned, traumatized disbelief at _his_ words as they sunk in. She understood only vaguely what he was discussing – the word "improper" kept sliding in her mind – and could not make herself believe it. Her mouth gaped open as she drew in air she understood with one part of herself she didn't need, but yet she _needed_ to _breathe_, to try to cleanse her comprehension. "She healed immediately. We discovered it was kinder, truly, to make sure any female who would enter this life would do so...without her maidenhead."

"And – and you – me – you...?"

His silence gave her the only excuse she needed to attack, leaping over the forgotten bodies to try to rip his head off. She failed, but she did succeed in escaping to the countryside, trailed by half a dozen of her kind bent on bringing her home. By then, she had brought down a wild goat and was draining its body dry.

**[+]1944[+**]

Animal blood, though slightly distasteful, was far preferable to killing an innocent human and Bella had learned to content herself with the flavor. Finding that she always "came home" after a hunt, her sire, Aro, had allowed her this _idiosyncrasy_. She had had to return to the Volterra stronghold; she had no place else to go.

Deer! The tail flickered, intermittent light making the animal seem as if it were in a cartoon feature at the movies. _I need to find a movie house_, she mused as she leapt for the back of her prey. Part of her was thinking that a movie might be a way to escape from the watchful eyes of the wolfpack, but the rest of her mind focused on draining the deer whose spine she snapped with as much effort as a child breaking a matchstick.

After finishing her meal and dismembering the corpse for the benefit of carrion animals in the forest, she wiped her hands off on overhead leaves, not wanting to get her jeans more dirty than they were already. Come to think of it, she needed a bath.

"Quillayute River. He said it was...there!" She muttered to herself before jogging off to the south. On their earlier border run, Quil had pointed out one of the main rivers that the people accessed for salmon fishing and some boating. Isabella headed toward the Quillayute now, smelling only the fleeing scents of small animals as she went. No humans were around, so she slowed to an awkward halt and took another scenting of the immediate area.

No humans. No wolves, either. "I don't think," she whispered, peering cautiously about. Still, the river was wide enough that a scent could be lost across it and she didn't want to take any chances. The sun was still high in the sky, so she kept to the shadows, low to the ground as she wove through the trees to get to the river's edge. The trees were in full leaf, providing enough shade for what she wanted, considering there were no other eyes that she could see.

In the time it took for a bird to fly from the highest branches of the tree at her back, Bella had her sneakers off and her jeans followed, to be draped on low-growing brush. She kept her blouse on, but tied it up around her midriff as she entered the water. Tiny fish darted from her bare legs. Sun light glanced off tiny ripples in the water, but her legs underneath the surface were merely white. Brightly so. She dipped her hands into the river and decided she had a choice. Risk exposing her skin to the sunlight and any surprise guests that were canoeing down the Quillayute or get her shirt wet.

"It'll dry." With a wry expression – the kind of expression people who live alone don't even realize they make – she sank fully into the river and scooped sand up from the bottom. Humming softly, she scrubbed at her hands and feet and then stood to bend over and clean her head and scalp. A thorough rinsing completed her ablutions and she was just wringing out her hair when she heard a strangely deliberate cracking of a branch.

"Leech."

She gulped, ducking first beneath the water so that only her eyes showed. It was a natural reaction. Then, she saw the tall, ruddy form of Young Quil, the young man-turned-wolf. "Well, you ain't no sheba," he said with a sneer as he stepped boldly into the water, "but you're not bad, either. Now that I've seen all of you, anyway."

Feeling violated in the mocking but hot light in his eyes, she moved further into the water. She had the advantage over any air-breather there. "What do you mean?"

"Levi? He...saw you."

Embarrassment shot up her spine and into her eyes. She would have wept if she could have. Knowing Levi had seen her naked had not embarrassed her like this. Something in their rapport told her it was accidental and made him uncomfortable. But this – "How? How did you see?"

"We see each others' thoughts when we're wolves."

She swore under her breath and Young Quil laughed. "I'll – I'll –"

"Hey, ya ornery dame. It wasn't his fault. And if you attack him, we'll kill you."

He might have been laughing, but she saw how serious he was. "I believe you."

Deciding that the best thing to do was pretend she wasn't unsettled by him – after all, he couldn't see into _her_ mind – she gathered her dignity and stepped right out of the river, within an arm's reach of the teenager-who-wasn't. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get dressed." She had said just that to Levi the night before...

Young Quil chuckled. "Yeah, we heard that, too. You know, I think he's stuck on you. Which is just – just sick and wrong, you know?"

"What?" Levi? "No, I'm sure you're mistaken. He's just not _threatening_ me every time he lays eyes on me," she went on, turning her back on the young man and his too-knowing smile. "Now, I'm mostly clean and mostly wet and I'd like to get back, back home. If you're not on babysitting duty, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me do so in peace."

"Sure. As soon as you're home again."

The husky note in his voice gave her the heebie-jeebies, so she turned again to keep an eye on him as she dressed. "Remember, what you see they all see. Would your father be happy right about now?"

To her relief, the young man blushed darkly. "Fine. Just get your pale face back to the cabin. I don't even want to see it again." He paused. "Until the bonfire. You need to come. Then, you can hear why I want you the hell off our land, bloodsucker." Venom ran through his words more surely than it did in her veins, Bella thought.

"Bonfire...?"

"Where we tell the legends of our people. Tomorrow night. On the beach."

Consternation knotted in her chest and she frowned. She didn't trust this fella with fire if she was in the vicinity – unless the others were there. "I'll, I'll just stay in my cabin and out of your way."

"Afraid I'll forget my own strength and toss you in?"

"What is it with you, infant?" she demanded, having had enough of his demeanor and advancing on him. Her bare feet registered two pebbles and three twigs she crushed with her weight. "Are you _trying_ to get me angry? Is that it?"

He didn't move but held his ground. "Just come to the damned bonfire, bloodsucker."

"Fine. But I'm not going with you. Send your dad or Chief Black –"

"Or _Levi_?" he queried, innuendo clear in his sing-song voice.

She refused to react to that tone. "Anyone but _you_." They held each other's eyes for three beats of the Quileute's heart before she turned, hooked her shoes in her forefingers and ran back to the cabin.

* * *

**Young Quil in this story will become Old Quil from Twilight before the story's end. He grows up a lot, but…not for a while. **

**Anyone want more Levi? He'll be back on Thursday! ~LJ**


	6. Camouflage

**A/N: Thank you to EVERYONE who is reading this story and especially thanks to you who are leaving me such encouraging notes! I am hopeful you will continue to enjoy. :) **

**Notes on Holiday Scheduling down below…**

**Thank you for reading! ~ LJ**

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**Chapter Six: Camouflage**

"I'm home, little buddy," Levi called, returning from the work he did with the loggers. With the war happening over the Pacific, men were still fighting and more folks were needed at local businesses. At the naval base, some of the local women were helping out, but in the mountains and forests, it was a man's world and only men were allowed to work at logging. It paid decently, his supervisor was a flexible man and Levi was just glad for the work.

Joshua was being cared for today by Quil's wife, Theresa. With her children mostly grown, the woman was available to help out and she had a lot of experience raising boys as well as complete understanding of Levi's own schedule. She was a healthy, fine-looking woman with one shiny black braid down her back and a broad smile on her dark cheeks as she hoisted her charge up to a round hip. "Levi, welcome home. I've got dinner for you on the table. It's getting late, you know."

"I know," he said, stopping to kiss his son's cheek. "Hey, you good today?"

"Yes! Ran to the trees!"

"We took a walk in the yard," Theresa elaborated, setting the squirming boy on the floor. Levi took him into his arms immediately, burying his nose in the boy's hair as he always did. "When it started to rain, he insisted on playing in it. It felt fine, so I said okay."

"It was. Helped cool us off some at work, too." He carried Josh into the kitchen. "What's for dinner?"

"Fried chicken. I figured you could take it with you to the bonfire if you were running late." Theresa acted like a big sister sometimes and her slanted look was communicative. "Quil said," she went on in a soft voice as Joshua ambled off toward his own room, "that the new Cold One would be there. That our son had told him she should go. To learn our legends. I'm nervous to have the children there, Levi. I have to be honest with you."

"I know it. So's Annie. But you don't have to be. She's – she's not bad, for a Cold One. Come meet her; you'll see."

Theresa snorted loudly and went about collecting cold chicken and sliced fruit for Levi to take with him to the bonfire. "I've heard Young Quil say you're sweet on her," she tossed over her shoulder. "That's about the stupidest thing I've ever heard, but my son cannot keep his mouth shut to save his life."

"She's one of Them," Levi retorted, pushing aside the image of ripping Young Quil's hind leg off his body the next time they were both phased. "I'm not gonna be sweet on a Cold One. She stinks to high heaven." That was true enough.

"Well, then, I guess you'll be glad that the bonfire is on the cliffs. Will I think she stinks?"

"I don't know, Mrs. Ateara," Levi responded with some sarcasm. "Why don't you tell me when you meet her. Are you and Quil getting her?"

Wiping her hands off on a cloth, Theresa turned with a surprised look on her face. "No! I heard you were."

"Great. Honest, Theresa, I don't want her anywhere near Joshua. I don't want to even chance that he'll phase or something. I don't –"

Her warm hand was on his upper arm in moment. "I know, Levi. Sorry for teasing you. I know. I wouldn't want it either. It about broke my heart when my son started phasing. I'll take care of Josh. Maybe we'll just have all the kids go play on the beach while Eph tells the stories."

"Good idea. Make sure to pack his blanket, will you? Just in case he gets tired."

Theresa pointed to an orange and brown knitted baby blanket with a brown satin ribbon on one corner. It was dangling precariously from the kitchen counter. "Got it covered. Go get cleaned up. I'll take Josh back with me to the house and we'll see you at the bonfire."

**[~]**

"Yes, I have a _shirt_ on," Levi said while rolling his eyes at the vampire. "And you have a dress on and we've got to run to the beach and you're wearing those _sandals_. What were you thinking?"

It was almost instinctive, throwing things like this at Bella. His stomach-clenching reaction to seeing her after not having seen her in about two days was ridiculous. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail, having a slight curl to it as it settled on her shoulder. The dress was the same blue dress with the little flowers on it that she had tossed on after that memorable moment in the cabin. She was still almost a foot shorter than he was and he had to remember that she was not a young woman, but a lot older. Like the Cullens, she might look like a teenager, but she wasn't one.

"When were you born, anyway? You called Young Quil an _infant_," he reminded her when she looked startled.

"About that," Bella said, stepping from the cabin and sniffing the wind. She wrinkled her nose and continued. "What were you _thinking_? Now the entire Pack has seen that – what Aro and Alec did to me."

What he had been thinking was entirely the problem. Discordant as it was with everything he stood for, he had this strange protective reaction toward the Cold One on the Reservation and he couldn't seem to shake it. Yes, it had been years since he'd had sex – no woman had interested him like that since Linda had died – but this was a damned vampire, for Pete's sake. _Now, if she were human... Enough, Uley!_

He returned to their abrupt conversation."Alec?"

"He was the one who carried out Aro's punishment, yes. I really, really was unhappy about you showing this, you know," she told him, her hand reaching around to brush what he knew was a gouging of her body. The idea that _that_ had happened to her infuriated him. "It's not nice to know everyone can see stuff this private."

"Yeah, well, we're not keen on it, either. You gonna answer my question?"

"About?"

Levi rolled his eyes again. "What. Year. Were. You. Born?"

"I don't know," she snapped. "Remember? I don't even know my last name. I only know I was in Volterra and they think I was about twenty when they turned me. So let's say 1880, all right? Happy?"

He stiffened, but not at her words. There was a strident, almost desperate edge to the musical notes of her voice that resonated within him uncomfortably. Everything about her was uncomfortable... "Yeah. You're a peach. So," he eyed her wedge-shaped sandals askance, but shrugged. "So if you're okay, let's run through the woods and when we broach the tree line, we'll walk in, eh?"

"Who's going to be there?" she asked, ducking down and moving insanely fast to straighten up with her shoes in one hand. "Just you fellas?"

Levi blinked at her speed and made himself turn from her to start away from the cabin at a jog. "Us and some of our kids and wives and other people from the Rez. It's kind of a social. Like an ice cream social at church, but at night and with wieners instead of sweets."

She ran at a little distance from him, an uncomfortable space. The first time they'd run together – when she didn't even know him – she had run closer. Without a heartbeat to help clue him in on her emotional state, without sweat glands or anything else he and his pack brothers had come to rely upon in order to determine emotions in others, Levi felt lost as to what she was feeling.

And he really wanted to know. Which made him even more uncomfortable. He felt her eyes on him a couple of times, but tried to ignore it as they picked up speed. That became impossible the third time because she spoke.

"Quil – the young one – told me that you fellas see each others' thoughts when you're wolves."

Chagrin colored his face and he slowed down in his run, silently hoping she would do likewise. "Uh, yeah."

"That's embarrassing."

"For you and me both."

"I won't do it again. I mean, you know, even if you're on duty or whatever. I'll, uh, just not do it."

The trees were thinning and he could already hear the gathering people around the bonfire. The odors of salt and tangy driftwood smoke reached him. "I'm sorry, Bella. I really can't help it."

"I know. Better you than me," she quipped with half a smile. "So, you said the children will be here?"

He would have appreciated her change of subject as they slowed to a walk and emerged on the open sandy soil, if the new topic had been anything else. "Yeah." Something uncomfortable struggled between his chest and his gut. He stopped and put out a hand to ask her to stop, too. Aware that the eyes of the others were on him, he sighed as his hand met her smooth, cool skin. "Look, Bella, I, uh, have a favor to ask you."

"Sure." Briefly, she covered his hand with her own before gently extricating herself from his lingering clasp.

He winced inwardly because he didn't know why he felt compelled to touch a stinking Cold One and also because the others would see it next time they all ran together. _I hate this_. "Nothing personal, not really, but I want you to stay away from the kids. The boys. We – the Pack and the Council – don't know how they'll react being around a Cold One. The Cullens started us phasing last time and there were five of them. We don't know if just one of you will affect our sons, but –"

As he had on the cliff the day before, he saw her embarrassed discomfort in the way she drew her lips tightly together and the small furrow that formed just over each eyebrow. Her skin moved...it wasn't really like a rock, like the legends said. She was soft and smooth and – _Enough!_

"All right. I'll stay away from them," she whispered, her voice sounding stuck in her throat.

"Then let's go. You really should hear the legends."

"You said it wasn't just the others," she murmured as they began walking toward the burgeoning bonfire. The smells of Coca-Cola and fire-licked meat enticed him to move a little faster. "Who am I, then? I'll need an alias."

Levi came to a stumbling halt just shy of the broad, uneven circle cast by the light of the fire. "Damn! I don't know."

To his surprise, Bella's laugh lifted his sudden confusion away as if it had never been. "I came with you. I think they'll think we're on a date."

He took a second too long to respond to that. A second in which Ephraim's deep voice called, "Levi! Oh, good. You and Isabella made it. Annie," he went on, drawing his wife up with one hand, "here's the girl we were telling you about."

Levi's mouth dropped open and he shot knives from his eyes to his chief's. _Oh, he is so going to pay for this_. "Sorry, Bella," he offered softly.

She was smiling though, her teeth perfect and white in the reflected firelight. "All aces."

"Well, you might be good at this, but –" Levi chopped off his sentence as Annie and Ephraim reached them. "Annie, hi. This is Bella Johnson."

"Miss Johnson," Annie said, her voice tight but a light in her dark eye that told Levi – who knew her well – that she was enjoying herself at his expense. "I've heard so much about you."

"I bet, Mrs. Black. Nice to meet you," Bella returned with a smile.

With a grin that was far too broad to be innocent, Ephraim gestured to the fire. "Come on. We've saved you a log."

"I'm gonna rip your tail off tomorrow," Levi told his Alpha in a voice so quiet only a wolf – or vampire – could hear him.

Eph snorted. "Good luck with that."

**[~]**

"I have to wear what?"

It was the day after the bonfire. A Sunday, and the stores were all closed and the loggers were having their day of rest. After a good morning rough-and-tumble with Joshua, Levi had taken him to Annie. He promised his son they'd have dinner together that night. And then, Levi had taken off at a run for the cabin.

"My clothes."

"The pack smells like Quil. The young one," Bella said with an irritated expression. She opened the pack and found Levi's clothes – a pair of old trousers and a flannel shirt as well as socks and a pair of slippers his grandmother had knitted for him when he had been a teenager. He had never liked them, but they would serve a good purpose, now. All these clothes would have to be burned when Bella had finished wearing them.

Levi shrugged. "We wanted more than one scent. To show that two of us had taken you down," he told her.

She sighed, clearly rehashing the post-bonfire conversation in her mind. "Because we're going to leave a Bella-trail as she's being followed by two werewolf trails. And then I'm going to be taken down and burned and go back with you."

"Right."

He remembered the quick meeting. Comprised of Ephraim and Annie, Quil and his phasing son, as well as Levi and Bella, Chief Black had told Bella the plan for trying to show that she was not on the Reservation, just in case the bounty hunter had got a telegram off to Italy.

"So I get to die again. Wonderful," Bella had said. "But I get it," she told them all that night. "I appreciate you sharing your history with me. I don't want you in any further danger. I'll do my best to keep out of sight. I will."

"Do they really smell that bad?" Annie had wondered.

"They stink like a wet dog who rolled in human vomit."

Annie had frowned and turned her nose immediately into Ephraim's chest to inhale. "Not to me."

"It's that smell we're counting on," Ephraim reminded them that night.

And so Levi was here to make sure "that smell" was associated with a dead vampire. "Ready?"

"I guess. Let's go."

After taking the pack from her, Levi grimaced at her hair. "Take it down, while we run out. Let's make sure your scent is as widely cast as we can get it. I'll run with the pack touching the ground and trees as much as I can. We'll tighten it up after."

"After you kill me, you mean." Her smile was wry in the misty light of midmorning.

The idea was abhorrent to him, but he shook it off. "After we cut your hair. I've got scissors in there, too."

She ran then, in front of him Her route would take her to the edge of the land – the edge of the North American Continent, really – and then she'd head south, staying between the forest and the trees as much as she could because once they left the Reservation, there would be more people and less cover.

The vampire ran and he chased her. Neither of them moving beyond human-possible speeds, just in case. "How are you doing?" she called back over her shoulder.

He snorted at her. "Fine. You just worry about not being seen, huh?"

The Sitka spruce and aged oak trees of the Reservation clumped and thinned and still they ran. He kept breathing evenly, since their pace was comfortable for him. Before he felt the need to take a break, she slowed. The pounding of the surf on the dark rocks below told him why.

"Anyone there?" It was a Sunday, after all. Lots of people might be at the beach.

"Yeah, look." She beckoned, her hand moving minutely next to her thigh. Today, she was wearing clothing that Annie had found in the back of a closet. "It's pre-baby clothes, and I think they'll fit. Apologize to her for me, will you? I know they're out of date."

Levi had only laughed as Ephraim puffed up with pride over his wife's kind heart and generous spirit. "Hon," the chief had said, "they're going to be set on fire. I think they'll be perfect."

So Bella wore the straight brown skirt and the white, short sleeved blouse as well as the long-sleeved jacket– just in case. Her scent would be all over the clothing by the time they were taken off to be burned as evidence of her demise, along with a couple inches of her hair that would also be burned.

Below them, on the beach, there was a family moving around the tide pools. A chance motion made the motherly-looking one see Bella and then Levi and they smiled and waved. The man in the group put an arm around the woman and Levi felt his arm move to do likewise, to Bella. After brushing his fingers up her back he realized the stupidity of his move and coughed, using the guilty hand to cover his mouth.

"I guess we can walk along this part until we're out of sight," he said once he'd got his breath back.

"Sure. Sure," she repeated.

After about ten minutes of walking at her side, he judged it good to run again and they did. Traveling roughly parallel to the coastline, allowing for townships and people and wind blowing the clouds out of the path of the sun so that Bella had to find places to wait or travel where there were shadows, they ran until early afternoon.

Levi's stomach growled, Bella smiled playfully at him, and, after looking around, she declared, "Well, I guess this is as good a place as any to bring me down, Protector of the Quileute Nation."

Their day together had brought them to a more comfortable familiarity that Levi found himself enjoying a great deal. He rubbed at his rumbling midsection and cocked his head. "All right, then. I'm hungry."

"I like Chief Black and his wife, but someone should have thought to pack you a lunch," Bella commented, standing utterly still.

"I'll manage. Now," he went on, trying to assume a more matter-of-fact demeanor because he knew they were both postponing the coming uneasiness. "We need to – you need," he corrected at her lifted brow, "to change out of your clothes and into mine."

She was originally supposed to wear Quil's clothes, as he was the shortest of them at five-eleven. Something in Levi rose in protest, however, and he had told his chief that he already had some old things she could wear.

Eph had shaken his head and told him he could handle it as he liked.

"I guess we're here again, then, Levi?" Bella accepted the knapsack that Levi had used to spread Quil's scent on their half-day run. "Turn around and all that?"

He met her golden eyes and had to smile. "Seems so. I'll go phase and you'll put on those clothes," he said with a nod at the pack. "And cut about two inches off your hair and we'll burn that, too."

"Right." She looked in the bag for a moment. "Wait. Um. There aren't any, ah, undergarments in here, Levi."

He winced. "Sorry. I just was thinking what you'd need to cover up...?"

"Yeah. I mean, it won't be the first time I've not worn undergarments..."

His mind flashed back to the night in the cabin and he shook his head with a jerky motion. "I know. So, I'll go over there behind that copse," he said, indicated a group of pine trees in the park they had stopped in to take care of this business. They were at the Cape Disappointment State Park, and had seen the lighthouse in passing before veering off into the cover of the trees. "You call me when you're ready and I'll bring you my clothes to put back in the pack. Then..." His stomach rumbled again.

Bella's face twitched in thought. "We could go get you something to eat first, you know. I hate for you to be doing this on an empty stomach. There was a lady at the lighthouse selling sandwiches."

Levi scrubbed at his head with one hand and thrust the other into the front pocket of his jeans. "Fine, but, uh, Bella? I didn't bring any money."

"Oh. Me either." She eyed his noisy middle. "I could steal one for you. I won't get caught."

Once again, he failed to answer fast enough and in the next breath, she had grinned and run off.

Half an hour later, he was tucking waxed paper into the knapsack. "Thanks again."

"You're welcome." She continued to watch the surrounding trees, as vigilant as any wolf protecting the people. The comparison shook Levi, but he was unable to ignore all the ways in which he found he _liked_ his mortal enemy. "Ready to change?"

"Yep. Now, when we're done, I, um. Well. We're going to have to cover you in my scent," he mumbled awkwardly.

Bella blinked. "Isn't that what the clothes are for?"

"You'll need more, Bella." He caught her gaze in his. "Trust me?" He had a plan, though it threatened to rob him of his good sense, he knew it was a sound one. "Please?"

"All right. I will. Let's change and then...you do what you have to do."

After a quick look around, Levi ran lightly away from her, already steeling himself against the coming, lighting-powerful agony that would flash through his body. He was accustomed to it, but it still hurt, every time. Checking once more to make sure he was alone – save for the _vampire_ about twenty yards away – he pulled off his flannel shirt, unbuttoned his shorts and let them fall to the ground. Bella had complained about not having underwear and he hadn't had the heart to tell her he wasn't wearing any, either.

Naked, he took a deep breath, pulling it from all around and feeling his chest expand with the air. Then, he found the heat along his spine and used it. Saw himself as the wolf he was, the wolf his bloodline made him. Mottled gray with black ears, huge paws and a black-tipped tail. Soon, he was on all fours and sniffing the pine and ocean-scented air.

_Vampire. Bella_. With a small chuffing sound, he pushed his shirt and shorts together and was trying to get purchase on both garments with this teeth when Bella's odd attractive-repulsive scent swirled closer to him.

"Levi?" she called softly. "You all right?"

He sniffed the air audibly, like he was trying to snort, and tried to catch up his clothing again. The shorts kept falling out. At her amused half-giggle, he directed a look to her. _Well? Help me, already_, he thought.

As if understanding, she knelt and gathered his clothing. But she did so with her hand wrapped up in the dangling length of the sleeve of his old flannel shirt. It was far too big for her and she was using it to mask her own scent as she picked up his clothing. He barked softly in appreciation before nudging her shoulder with his muzzle. _Time to light a fire_, he thought.

But first, she placed her free hand on his throat, brushing her fingers through his fur. He felt his eyelids lower and a contented sort of growl start to come to life in his chest. "Thank you."

Before he was ready for it, her hand was gone and she had dashed off to where a pile of clothing waited. Not having the advantages of opposable thumbs, he had to watch and just feel stupid and helpless while she used the old Zippo lighter he had also packed along with the change of clothes and hair shears. "All right," she said, looking at him with a resigned expression. "I'm cutting my hair. If I don't get it straight, no fair laughing at me. And you better tell that younger Quil not to laugh either. Because I owe him a sock in the nose for scaring me out by the river."

_What? _Levi bristled and another growl started in his chest. He could feel his hackles rise and his lips pull back. _What the hell happened? _he was thinking.

Maybe the question was in his eyes because Bella met his gaze forthrightly. "He scared me when I was taking a bath."

Levi growled more loudly this time. _What did that kid think he was doing? Walking up on Bella while she was bathing? _

Bella pushed air out her nose and kicked her clothing together into a small pile. He saw the peachy tint of her brassiere and the white cotton of her panties and knew he would have been blushing if he was still in his human skin. "I asked him if Quil would have been happy with him and he backed off." She smiled a little as she brought forth a section of hair in front of her face. "I can take care of myself, Levi. I've fought before."

He growled anyway, his imagination unwillingly wandering to an image of Bella bathing in a river. Any river. Frustrated and annoyed with himself, he pushed the images away. Damned Pack mind. Everyone would see that. He had to hide it. Somehow.

The distinctive slicing sound of scissors through hair scraped his sensitive ears. With each snip, Bella sighed and dropped a clump of hair onto the clothing. She looked very unlike herself with the long, red flannel sleeves rolled up her arms and the worn, torn jeans cuffed multiple times. What made Levi smile in his own lupine way was how unusual her tiny feet looked when bundled in a pair of his thick woolen socks and the unworn slippers.

Soon, her hair hung barely below the midline of her back and Bella sighed again at the mahogany locks of hair that had settled into the grooves of Annie's discarded outfit. "Well, here ends Isabella Johnson," she mused, her tone regretful but whimsical, too. She knelt and set her hair on fire with the Zippo lighter on one side of the pile before flashing to the other side of the pile and doing the same.

Soon there was a small but satisfying blaze and Levi was relieved to smell "bloodsucker" in the plumes of smoke.

"What else?" Bella demanded, her tone business-like as she tucked the lighter away.

Levi chuffed soothingly, trying to relax her. He sniffed and sneezed against the decaying, burnt sugar smell of her, but he lightly tapped her back with his nose before kneeling on the ground. _Come on, on the ground,_ he was thinking.

He was going to have to cover her in his scent. From head to toe, the bloodsucker had to give off the aroma of the werewolf. After a few false starts, she finally got it and knelt on the green grass. "Like this?"

He nodded his head the best he could and then he had to make himself vulnerable. It took a moment, because his instincts still rose against Bella the Cold One even if other parts of him – human parts of him – wanted to draw closer to her. Still, he spread out on the ground fully, rolling on his side and praying no park rangers showed up. While she studied him, he made a beckoning motion with his paws.

A light sparked in her molten topaz eyes. "All right," she whispered, tucking herself into the long line of his body. His heart jumped in his chest and he wondered if she'd notice as she tried to hold on. _Sorry, Bella._ He rolled backward first, to give her the idea and she clung to his fur with hard, cold fingers. Then, he rolled forward, secure in the knowledge that his weight would not crush a Cold One. She yipped like a puppy as she went under him, her legs gripping as her arms did. She buried her face against him and he felt that she was warming up in his own body's heat. She wasn't quite so cold, anymore. She smelled a little less like her and a little more like him and it was...good.

It felt weird and he knew Ephraim would harass him about this but – but he really enjoyed having the opportunity to hold her. Protect her with the properties of his own body. To get up and run with her mounted on him as if she had always ridden a giant wolf bareback. To communicate with some kind of clarity through the touches of her warming skin and the sounds he could make from his throat as they ran, camouflaged, all the way back to La Push.

As secretly as he could, he relished this time. He was certain it would never happen again.

* * *

**A/N: HOLIDAY UPDATES. I've been posting Monday and Thursday so far, but during the holidays (read: next week through 1/1/11), I'll be posting once a week. I am aiming for Wednesdays. Between traveling and houseguests and other commitments this should work out. Thank you again for reading!**


	7. Adjustments

**A/N: Hello! Thanks so much for the tweets rec'ing this story and the reviews! Welcome to any and all new readers! Great to have you along. **

**We left Levi and Bella after they did some scent-camouflage so that if anyone were following bounty hunter Amintore, they would think Bella had been burnt by werewolves. This was a successful ruse and we are now moving forward into the following year.**

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* * *

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**Chapter Seven: Adjustments**

**[+]1945[+]**

"We really are sorry, Mrs. Ackerman," Mr. Hart, the civilian supervisor at the Naval Yard said with an expression that spoke true sincerity. "I really did keep you on as long as I could, but with the boys coming home –" He winced, obviously concerned about the woman in front of him.

Bella – who had been working as Isabella Ackerman, widow of Petty Officer Arthur Ackerman – compressed her lips and blinked a lot, looking down at her lap as if she were doing her level best to control her sorrow. "I know," she whispered. "I do appreciate it. It's been a help, Mr. Hart. Thank you so much for everything."

Sweat trickled down Mr. Hart's ruddy temple as he shifted uneasily. "Well then, Mrs. Ackerman, here's your final check – you are able to cash it, aren't you? Do you want our accounting office to cash it out? Would that make circumstances...easier for you?"

Bella sniffled a little, making it sound brave and convincing. "That would be helpful, yes."

Mr. Hart slid her the envelope and rose to his feet. "You know, if you need anything or help getting to Seattle or a train ticket back to your family, you only need to ask." He offered her his hand.

As befit a proper widow, Bella was wearing black gloves and took her former employer's hand briefly. "Thank you. I'll – I'll be fine." In truth, she had tucked away enough cash as a welder at the shipyard to set her up fine for a year or more, even if she bought new shampoo every week. "This has been a good experience for me. Thank you."

"Well, you've done us all proud, Mrs. Ackerman. And I know it's early, but you'll find someone else, I'm sure, when you're ready. It's hard for a woman alone..."

_That_ she wanted to nip in the bud. How many propositions had she received as she carried the identity of a grieving widow? Nine direct, and eleven suggestions. With an abrupt jerking of her body, she stood and tucked the plain white envelope into her black leather handbag. "Yes. Thank you. And good day, Mr. Hart."

Avoiding the sympathetic or pitying half-smiles of the women in the secretarial pool, Bella navigated the corridors until she got to the proper office to cash out her paycheck. The older woman with the over-rouged cheeks at her scarred desk oozed feigned goodwill as if she were standing in for Donna Reed in a movie.

Free at last from the confines and demands of a human job, Bella inhaled deeply of the metallic salt in the air around her. Out of the offices, past the dockyards where she had worked, her steps were not too sprightly. After all, she still had to play the role of a widow who had been fired from her only job. So she kept her demeanor sober as she unwound the scarf from her head and rolled it up to slide into her handbag. She wore trousers as she always did to work, and the faint whisper of the fabric kept time for her while she let her mind wander.

Ten months. She had been in this part of the world for ten months. Living on the outskirts of the Quileute Reservation, watching the seasons change from summer to autumn to winter and now to spring, she had hidden herself for a couple of weeks before the inactivity and lack of variety in her wardrobe prompted her to get a job.

And now that job was over.

She walked – many people walked to work and back – before taking a path that would lead her to the woods. She had a regular route to run home, hidden from the eyes of the human world. With the sun hidden by the nearly-incessant cloud cover, the walk was mostly worry-free for her. Once she was safely inside the woods, she smiled.

"Levi..." He had been on patrol not too long ago, while she had been at work. She looked and, yes, a tuft of gray fur that was the exact shade of the fur on his right flank was wedged in a split of pine bark as she ran by. She reached up to tug it out because it would not take a wildlife specialist to know that wolves did not normally leave their fur five feet off the ground.

She inhaled deeply, still smiling to think that he had been here so recently. He was often in her thoughts. Though forbidden from going into the village, Bella did see the men of the Pack as they patrolled, looking for more rogue vampires. One had been scented not too long ago, but his trail had stopped at the border.

The werewolves marked their territory. Levi had been in his wolfskin when he showed her how well she was protected. And then he had phased to talk with her.

"You can understand, it's acting against our instinct, Bella." A clear, frigid December night hid both of them adequately as they paced by the ice-lined Quillayute. The river was not frozen over, but the banks had icy fingers reaching into the main current of the waterway. He was wearing denim and a flannel shirt – it was almost a uniform here, she had discovered. She wore something similar and had her hair braided as the women often did on the Reservation. From a distance to the rear, they gave the appearance of a local couple. When he was human-looking, anyway.

"I know it is. And I do appreciate it."

"Annie said she wishes you could get down and visit."

Bella had laughed, then. That Chief Black's wife had been so hospitable still astonished her. "I know why I can't."

"It's not that we don't trust you," Levi had hastened to assure her, his hand rising for a hesitant moment to cover her shoulder before he seemed to remember she was, after all, his sworn enemy in terms of their separate species. "We all do."

"Except Quil the Younger," she had reminded him that night.

Levi had grinned then, his smile flashing white under the light of the stars. "I think it's mostly a game with him, you know? He's just a kid, still. And you're a girl and he might be practicing."

On her way home from work, the conversation still made Bella snort a little. As she finally neared her cabin, she thought she could even hear the younger Quil and Levi. Not their human voices, but their distinctive growls.

On alert, her smile disappeared and she sprinted to find them. What if another vampire had invaded the lands? Much as the pack's ability to see one another's thoughts irritated her, just at that moment she would have given much to be able to join them, to know what was wrong.

Then, a sharp yelp hit her ears and she leapt into a clearing just to the west of her cabin. That wasn't Levi. So it was the younger Quil. There he was, down on the ground, writhing in agony!

"Quil!"

Levi emerged from the trees, his fur standing stiffly out around his body. His light eyes narrowed, the wolf-brows angling down in his lupine face as he saw her. He made no move to go to Quil, so she did. After all, Quil was one of the Protectors, and though he was annoying she bore him no ill-will.

Quil's coat was a sandy brown color. Not dark, not red at all, but a neutral shade comprised of several, variegated light browns. He growled at her as she approached, his lips curled back to expose his strong canine teeth. Still, she felt no threat from him. "You're embarrassed, aren't you? What on earth did you fellas do while I was at work?" His smell was sharper in his obvious pain, making her nose wrinkle. With gentle fingers, she tried to ascertain if he had any open wounds that would need binding to keep the blood in his body.

Levi's sudden bounding to her side was unexpected. He towered over her as she crouched at Quil's side. His focus on her was intent, the expression in the too-familiar eyes making her think that he'd have all kinds of things to tell her if he were walking about in his own skin.

"Can you phase back?" she asked Quil. "Will that help?"

The brown muzzle let out a whine that sounded reluctant. Bella straightened and put one hand on either side of Levi's face. She tried not to inhale too deeply, but admitted to herself that – compared to how Quil smelled right that moment – Levi's familiar stink was welcome. "Look, I won't make you tell me what happened. You fellas are going to do things your own way and I really don't want to get in the way, but can you help him? Please?" He snorted over her head as he abruptly jerked out of her hands. She didn't take offense – she smelled awful to him. "If you're worried he'll want revenge," she offered with a smile, nudging his flank with her shoulder, "I'll stay here. You know, I might not be able to take down one of you all by myself when you're hale and whole, but he doesn't look so good right now."

At that, both of the werewolves angled their faces so that they looked at each other and then at her. She could only imagine what they were telling each other. A growl rumbled in Levi's powerful chest and he nudged his shoulder with his muzzle – his lupine way of greeting her in a "hello" or "goodbye." Then he just stared at her, waiting.

"What?" Exasperation flared within her because he knew she didn't understand him. He stepped around in a tight circle and stared at her again. Then, she looked around and noticed there were no clothes waiting in any piles anywhere. Whatever had happened between them had happened probably on the spur of the moment at some distance from here.

Far too aware of Levi's boundaries regarding his naked skin, she held up her hands. "Okay, I'll go back to my house. But you better fix him, or I'll sneak into the village and tell the Chief."

Both wolves aspirated a laugh at her and she realized her threat was now made and good, because Chief Black would certainly see this exchange the next time they were all on patrol together. "_Ha_ to you!" she said in triumph as she turned to walk away. "See you later, fellas," she called over her shoulder.

A smile tugged at her lips and she almost felt like putting a little extra "bounce to the ounce" in her step. Probably worried about her seeing them naked, she knew they were watching her retreat.

"Oh, Bella," she breathed almost soundlessly, "you can be a bad, bad girl." She wanted to giggle.

**[+]1946[+]**

"It's for Joshua's birthday," Bella told Levi. "Just give it to him, okay? I know – I know we haven't met or anything yet, but you've told me so much about him and I wanted to get it for him, okay?"

Levi appeared nonplused as he knelt next to the small bike – called a _Velocipede_ in the Fairy Children's Vehicles Catalog, because it had three wheels – with its shiny red paint. "Bella – I, I don't know what to say." He met her eyes, his own absolutely vulnerable in their confusion. She knew, more or less, about that confusion. Like her friend the werewolf, she mostly ignored it.

"Does he know how to ride? I mean, I know he's only four, but..."

"Not yet, but I'll teach him." He unfolded himself to stand straight at his six-foot, two-inch frame. Bella felt suddenly nervous at his proximity and held very still, keeping her focus on his face and not on the powerful lines of his throat or shoulders. She sometimes wondered what the women in the village were thinking. Or the ones in the logging town of Forks. He'd been alone for four years now and it wasn't as if he weren't handsome – he was. Oh, she had been teased with varying degrees of subtlety by the others in the Pack about him, but she was pretty sure it had everything to do with that awkward first evening when Levi had caught her changing from wet clothes to dry. So she ignored the sly remarks and sudden smirks.

But Levi was in front of her now, hands clenching convulsively at his sides. "You didn't have to do this, Bella. I – I can't – I wish you –"

His awkward self-consciousness was almost painful for her, because it echoed within her own undead heart. Without thinking, she reached up to cover his mouth with her fingertips. "It's all right, really. I – I know how it is."

With a gentle pressure, he circled her wrist with one of his hands. "Thank you."

His skin was callused and hot – they couldn't go to a regular doctor, he had told her once, because of their body temperature. "Which isn't really a problem, since we don't really get sick and we heal real fast anyway."

She had seen that and remembered it as he held her wrist next to his son's birthday present. "I hope he has a happy birthday and that he – he learns to ride without falling down too much."

Levi grinned down at her then and somehow his hand enveloped hers in a way that felt almost natural. "Me too. He doesn't heal like I do."

_And you don't want him to, I know,_ Bella thought but did not say.

As if suddenly aware of the fact that he was holding her hand, he let it go slowly with an uneasy smile and bent to pick up the bike. "Thanks again."

**[+]1947[+]**

She was at the eastern border when she smelled him and came to an immediate crouch. The night was clear and the temperature cool. She was singing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" under her breath while she jogged along the border before going beyond it to hunt in the wider forestland. That number had won the Academy Award that year for Best Original Song and it just made one Isabella Milano – her current personal alias – want to dance and do a little jig.

At least until she smelled the vampire heading toward the border of the Quileute lands. She smelled him at the same time as she saw him. He was tall – taller than Levi as he flashed closer to her. "Hey," he said. "Good hunting here? You're all protective of your territory." His voice had a slight Southern twang to it. Texas, maybe.

"I don't hunt quite like you do," she murmured, staring into his burgundy eyes. Their sight was so acute that the pinpricks of the stars were sufficient for complete disclosure. "And I'd appreciate it if you'd just turn around, sir. We try to keep this place safe."

"We? Are you part of a coven?"

"No, I'm alone of my kind, here," she admitted, no longer in a defensive posture but still poised to flee if she had to, to stay safe or to alert Quil, who was taking a last melancholy patrol tonight, alone in the night air. Bella had taken it upon herself to be on guard as he would no longer be so. "But I'm not the only protector this land has, Texas, so..." She let her voice rise in expectation.

"All right, then." He grinned and she felt a sudden wish to grin likewise, goodwill suffusing her under her stone skin. He drew nearer, hand outstretched. "We haven't been properly introduced, ma'am. Jasper Whitlock."

After hesitating only a moment, she met his hand with her own. "Bella. I – I don't know what my last name was, before. Right now, it's Milano."

He brushed his lips on the back of her hand before gently letting it go. "A pleasure, Miss Bella. So tell me how your eyes get that color. Were you injured? I've never seen golden eyes in one of us before."

It was a question she had often encountered and, since she didn't feel anywhere near defensive for the moment, she answered him. "I don't hunt humans, Mr. Jasper. I hunt animals. It's something I started doing soon after I was changed and I prefer it."

He made a face and she had to laugh at it. He exaggerated his expression and she felt a new burst of humor and comfort welling within her. "Animals? Like squirrels?"

Bella snorted. "What is it with everyone thinking I'll eat squirrels?"

Jasper Whitlock laughed softly in the darkness, his teeth flashing white. "So you consider this your hunting territory for bigger, er, game, then? Like what, rabbits?"

"Deer, sometimes bear or a big cat." She looked beyond the other vampire's arm. "I had been getting ready to go hunt out there. But I can wait."

He lifted a brow and she felt a soft pulsing of sexual attraction coming over her. This bothered her more than a little so she mentally distanced herself from it. Only to find that, suddenly, she didn't feel anything at all that wasn't defensive concern and worry about the villagers. A growl rumbled in her upper chest. "Maybe you should go, sir. This isn't a place you can safely hunt. Trust me."

"Sugar, I can hunt safely anywhere," he asserted. Then, he shifted and shifted back. "Wait. What are you doin'? I can't feel you anymore."

It had been so long since she'd had to worry about it that Bella had tended to ignore the special ability she had had upon awakening from the terror and pain into this new life. "No, I don't guess you can. Unless I let you. You feel things?"

"I'm an empath. And you're a blocker, maybe?"

"Aro of the Volturi called me a shield."

"Huh. Fancy that. Well, Isabella of No Last Name but Milano," he drawled, doffing his scuffed derby, "I'll just get myself along. I've a hankering to travel to points East. Visit Philadelphia, maybe. To see the Liberty Bell."

"It's a sight, to be sure. I've been there."

They shook hands and she waited until all signs of him had passed beyond her ken before leaving for her own hunt. If Quil ran this way and caught Jasper Whitlock's scent later, she'd make sure to tell the retiring Protector that she had persuaded the "visitor" to go elsewhere for his meal.

**[+]1949[+]**

The bonfire was small, this evening. More of a campfire really, and Bella sat with relative comfort on the sandy ground, arms wrapped about her knees. Wearing a pair of clamdiggers and old sneakers as well as a short-sleeved cashmere sweater, she could have been a college student hanging out with a group of older friends. A casual observer might have thought she was "with" the tall man who sat behind her on the log, his angular face taut and gray eyes somehow always aware of her. Bella didn't heed the focus she felt as it strengthened and shifted; this strange awareness she shared with Levi Uley was bittersweet for both of them, communicated only through awkward silences instead of actual words.

Also around the bonfire were an older couple, Quil and Theresa Uley. Since he had stopped phasing two years back, Quil had come to rapidly adapt to his actual age, which was in his mid-forties. He looked about forty, Bella judged, and though he was a hale man who still had a seat at the Tribal Council, he claimed to actually be enjoying something as simple as catching a cold and being nursed by his wife.

Chief Ephraim and Annie were perched on another salt-crusted log. Little Christina was with them, and Bella watched the antics of the six-year-old as she learned how to spear a wiener with a fire-sterilized, sharpened stick. "See, I can do it!" she crowed, waving her achievement over her head.

"Looks great, Chrissy," Bella said.

Daughters could come to this bonfire since no one believed that the Cold One could mess with _their_ biology. Bella had long since become inured to the restrictions placed upon her interactions with the Pack and their families.

They had relaxed the boundaries they had initially placed on her, having come to know her over the years. She shopped at the small store in Forks, often riding in on a bicycle. She never tired and it was far less exceptional to do so than it was to just show up in the forest near the business end of the small logging town.

Also here were Young Quil and his girlfriend. After the thrashing Levi had given the younger man years ago for transgressions that had never been fully explained to Bella – she suspected they had to do with his thoughts about catching her bathing in the river as well as other awkward moments, _as well as_ his general attitude – the younger Quileute had politely ignored her. He checked in with her while on patrol, but it was more of a business-like visit than anything.

"So what's the big secret, fellas?" Bella finally asked into a quiet that had fallen after Chrissy demonstrated her mastery of the skewer. "Annie? Can you get your husband to talk to me?" She smiled at the chief's wife. "He's been awfully quiet, this evening."

Annie smiled a little sadly. "It's why we're here, Bella."

Behind her, Bella felt Levi shift on the log and his denim-covered knee brushed her shoulder with the most subtle of pressures. She knew better than to lean into it – he was already being teased about his memories of times they had spent together. Years old, these things were, but still...

Chief Black cleared his throat. "First, I wanted to tell you, Bella, that Quil, here, hasn't phased in two years."

"I know," she replied absently, studying the Chief's features. His dark eyes were sharp, tonight, his usual good humor in little evidence. "I was running the eastern border myself on the last night he was phased."

Ephraim slid his fingers into his wife's and drew her hand onto his lap. "Right. Well. I'm going to be taking my last patrol tonight."

Young Quil's girlfriend – a teenager named Laura from the Makah people who had come to La Push to go to school – stiffened a little, but said nothing. Bella guessed that the girl had been initiated into the secrets of the Pack.

"The last one? So you're going to stop going wolf, too?" Bella's heard the concern in her own voice and realized belatedly that it might seem strange for one of their hereditary enemies to be so concerned about their safety. But she was. "That will leave only Levi and Quil," she stated stupidly with a quick flick of her hand in Young Quil's general direction. "Will... Is that going to...work?"

"We managed for a lot of years before the Cullens came and we'll manage again," Quil, Senior stated.

"Besides," Chief Black continued, "we might have a plan. If you're willing."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You've been here for years, Bella, and have proven yourself dedicated to preserving human life and the borders of our lands. We'd like you to help us out, if you're willing."

She found herself twisting about to catch Levi's eye and leaned against his leg. "You sure about this? You and Quil?"

Levi kept his gaze trained on her face. "We're sure. You even have an advantage," he added with a small smile.

"I do?"

"Yeah. You don't need to take naps."

Young Quil snorted. "Even in front of the fire on rainy nights, eh, Levi?"

"Enough!" Chief Black held up a hand. "If you're willing, Bella, we'd appreciate the help."

"Of course. I'd be happy to help patrol the borders."

"Mom! I'm thirsty!" Chrissy called, having finished her wiener.

With that, the conversation was essentially over.

Later, everyone was heading back to their homes when Levi indicated with a motion of his head that he wanted to talk with her.

"You sure you're okay with this? I hate for you to feel pressured," he said quietly, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans as they paced slowly along the waterline of the beach.

She nodded and walked while watching his profile. "I am. I'm a guest here, still. I mean, I don't know how long I'll be able to stay, but I have so appreciated being able to have a – a home for these past few years. Thank you." A thought occurred to her. "I know Ephraim was the Alpha in your Pack, right? If he's not phasing, will that job be yours?"

He laughed, his smile bright and easy. "Yeah. Just me and Young Quil. Huge responsibility." He chuckled some more. "It shouldn't make a difference."

"Okay. Well then, I'm pleased for you."

He shrugged, his arms now swinging freely as he relaxed. "It'll be weird, you know," he confided. "Not having him in my head."

"Just you and Quil sharing brains, huh?" His hand was maybe an inch from hers and part of her wanted to just, just _grab_ it and hold on. She exerted a great deal of will and refrained. "Probably a relief."

"Lord, no. Now _I_ have to see what _he_ gets up to with Laura."

Bella giggled and Levi came to an abrupt stop. "That's nice, you know."

"What?"

"When you laugh."

"You, too."

"Bella, I –"

As she had done once before, she reached up and stopped his words with her fingertips. "You really don't want to give Quil any more ammunition, do you?"

He smiled a little sheepishly behind her fingers before catching them in his own. "Too late. The ideas have already crossed my mind."

* * *

**Ahhh… What kinds of ideas do you suppose Young Quil has already caught in Levi's head…? Will there be repercussions? **

**Chapter Eight will be up next Tuesday! A reminder: I'll be away from home so won't be able to reply to reviews until I get back. But I WILL when I'm home again and a teaser will be included with my reply. :) ~ LJ**


	8. Relationships

**A/N: Wow, your reviews blew me away with the last chapter! My thanks to ALL of you who are reading and Levi will take a moment from huffing VampBella to nuzzle you, too. :) Big Mwah!s to everyone who is informing me that my Levi is growing on them. :) You KNOW who you ARE!**

**We left Levi and Bella on the beach in the moonlight (cue music) when he was informing her that he had already had a few thoughts that Young Quil might find objectionable... And so we move forward.**

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Relationships**

"_Be safe, Dad!" _

"_You, too. Mind Mrs. Ateara, now."_

_. . ._

The rolled trousers settled under the rope near his rear hips as Levi shook and stretched in preparation for his patrol. Nine year old Joshua – still in the dark about the whole werewolf thing – only knew that his dad was on the Council and kept an eye on the borders because sometimes bad things happened in the woods.

It was a crisp night in early autumn as he followed his usual route through the forest. Nose attuned to the usual scents, he knew where the deer had most lately run, where the rabbits were burrowing, and even where human hikers had crossed paths. His vision was acute, and the star-dotted sky with its rising, three-quarter moon gave enough light for him to see more than adequately.

It was during runs like this, while Young Quil was off either sleeping or spending time with his imprint, that Levi allowed his mind to wander. He had known Isabella – Bella – for seven years, now. Seven years. He hadn't even known Linda that long, and his wife had been dead for nine years.

It was a long time for a man to be alone. But somehow, he rarely felt too entirely alone. Because he had someone he cared for more than he rationally should. More than traditions would ever dictate. More than he could admit to in open company. If Bella were only human...!

Well, if she _were_, he would have married her and done his best to give Josh a brother or a sister. Or two.

Running the entire border was his job and it was exhausting. Sometimes, he shared that responsibility with Bella. But he hadn't sniffed her out anywhere and it was already well past midnight when he decided to check on her cabin. No welcoming lantern light met his eye, so it was likely she wasn't home. He hadn't seen her in a few days, between his job and her new position at the drugstore in Forks. Every couple of years, she needed to replenish her funds and so she worked until she felt comfortable again.

Sitting in front of her cabin, he had to smile inside his own mind. There were tiny curtains in the windows, now, and the honeysuckle had been cultivated over the past few years so that its sweet aroma floated around the cabin. There was no electricity laid on this place, but Bella had never seemed to want it, so he had never even suggested a generator. Inside, he knew, there was a table and a few chairs leftover from the days when there had been four wolves still in the Pack. These days, he knew, the wives sometimes came up to see Bella, knowing she was not allowed down in the village.

He heard a humming sound over the distinctive creaking and popping noises of a bicycle and he actually barked like a puppy. _I am such an idiot_, he mused. Even so, he quickly phased human and stepped out of the rope and his trousers that were on the ground. Dressing rapidly, he wound the rope up and hung it on a hook outside Bella's door. He had installed hooks for the purpose of hanging clothing out in the air, but it worked great for the Pack too.

"Levi! I thought I caught a whiff of you!" Her voice rang with happy musicality in the wee hours of this September morning. She hopped off her bike and was at his side in a flash of white skin and trailing hair. "Have you, um, been waiting long?" Her breath seemed to catch in her throat as she inspected his bare torso and hastily-buttoned trousers. "I was at the movies. _David and Bathsheba_ was playing at the movie house in Port Angeles."

He grinned down at her and smoothed her fly-away strands of hair. They had slowly accustomed themselves to one another's touches...never anything intimate, but always affectionate...over the past couple of years. "You and your movies. Was it good?"

"Gregory Peck is always good," Bella assured him with a smirk. "And Susan Hayward is just beautiful. You know, sometimes, I still am so surprised when there's _sound_. I remember when the movies were all silent..."

"Maybe I should see it."

She nodded and moved to take his hand in both of hers. He registered the coolness of her skin and waited as it warmed up between his overheated palms. She smiled a little at him, her golden eyes gleaming through her lashes. "Maybe you should."

He gulped a quick breath into his lungs and drew her nearer by the hands they clasped, until he had one arm carefully behind her. She sighed against his bare chest and he smiled with unforeseen pleasure. Her flesh was hard, but he was stupid-strong and it didn't push him away. Not anymore. "You're warming up."

"You do have that effect on me," she murmured, her nose pushing into his pectorals. Her arms went slowly about his torso and he felt her fingers brushing the small of his back.

He sighed, dipping his nose to her hair, expecting to be put off by her vampire-stink. But instead, he was pleasantly surprised. "You smell like the wind, and the harbor," he murmured behind her ear. She shivered and he smiled. Oh, he did remember a thing or two, come to think of it. "Pine needles and open road...and soap?"

"Shampoo," she whispered, her lips almost brushing his skin.

Anticipation sent a shaft of need through him. It was tempered by caution on a whole lot of levels. "I felt that," he told her, still relishing the scents she brought with her from her ride from Port Angeles. "You're still a little cool, you know."

She tilted a little away from him and met his eyes. "You could always try your usual method to fix that."

He grinned. "Oh I could, huh? Never really tried it there before," he reminded her, sliding his hands up to cup her face between them. He could hear the change in his voice as he added, "Not that I haven't thought about it."

"Me, too... Just – just be careful, Levi."

"Venom in the mouth doesn't hurt me," he assured her, his smile gone as he brought his face back down to hers. "Just don't bite."

Her laugh was burning sugar and that other repulsive smell that he regularly pushed from his awareness of her. "I promise," she murmured as her eyes slid shut.

She trusted him not to ruin this, their first kiss. They had danced around it for who knew how long and Quil would find out and – _Ah, hell. I need to taste her..._

He brushed her lips lightly with his own. Smooth, not cold, but glassy in their otherness. Pushing his awareness beyond that, he let his own mouth linger on hers, feeling his skin conforming to hers as they danced with careful introductions. Again and again, taking longer each time until her skin was no longer cool and his own lips no longer felt too warm to be melding with hers.

He buried his fingers in her thick hair and tugged her forward, closer to him so he could sense the curves of her body – curves he remembered though he hadn't really _seen_ them for years – against the hard lines of his own. She moaned lightly into his open mouth, and he groaned with frustration before lightly tracing her lips with the tip of his tongue.

_Just to taste her...it's all I've wanted..._

Her breath caught and then she reciprocated, and suddenly their kiss deepened. He was surprised at the edged sweetness that seeped into him. Her hands clutched at his back, his bunched in her hair and he felt as if he could drink her in until he had no more breath.

_Bella_...

But he had to breathe, even if she didn't. Heart beating erratically within him, he cradled her against himself.

"Oh, my." Her words breezed over his hot skin – heated by emotion and passion as much as by biology. "Levi... I –"

It was his turn and he put his finger over her lips. "Shhh. I know. Bella, I –"

Then, the smell came to them both and they stiffened. "Fire!"

It was September 20, 1951 and the scattered western Hoh Forest blazes had taken wings in the dark, dry wind.

**[+]**

The fire had longstanding consequences in the logging community and the businesses and residents of Forks. One of the most significant, to Levi's mind, was the "boom town" atmosphere that sprang up in the wake of the intensive logging effort to get the affected timber cut and processed before it started to rot in the immediate days after the fire blew through 38,000 acres of forest.

Not a life was lost.

Two years later, standing with his eleven-year-old son on the banks of the Quillayute River, he could see some burnt sticks that used to be trees mixed with the saplings that had been replanted in the last year or so. The forest would grow again – fires were just nature's way of clearing the underbrush.

Josh was growing like the saplings. Tall, skinny as a stick right now, brown with the summer's sun. He skipped a stone into the river and grinned when it made three splashes. "Not too bad, eh, Dad?"

"Nope, you've got good aim, son." Levi felt so awkward. He wasn't sure how to handle this at all. Quil, though, had brought the situation to a head.

. . .

"_You're the _Alpha_, Levi," Quil – no longer _Young_ Quil, as he had married, – had protested, taking him by the shoulders and speaking very quietly. "She's not bad for a vamp, but she's not someone you go to the movies with, damn it. We ignored your – your infatuation with her because we figured you knew that. Come on, man. You can't be carrying on with a Cold One!"_

_Having nothing to say in response, Levi just shrugged Quil's hands off. "We're keeping it quiet and she's still staying away from the village."_

"_You're bein' a goof, Levi." _

"_Get bent, Quil."_

_The younger man snorted. "What do you tell Joshua, huh? 'Gee, Daddy-O? Where're you goin'? Ya got a girlfriend, Dad?'" he asked in a high voice that pretended to be a boy's._

_. . ._

Levi drew in a deep breath that expanded his chest and settled his nerves. Because, damn it, Quil had been right. As if he could see into the future, he had accurately predicted a confrontation that had just taken place between Joshua and his father.

"So what is it you want to know?" Levi finally brought himself to ask his son. He spied a small flat stone that would skip well. Avoiding eye contact seemed desirable just now. He put a twist to his wrist as he skipped the stone on the river.

Josh rolled his eyes. "Who is she? Really, dad, it's okay that you're seeing someone. I mean, it's not like I feel like you're a bad dad or anything." The lad offered up a cheeky grin. "But it's like she's a ghost, you know? Is she a white girl or something?" He laughed, obviously thinking he had hit the nail on the head. "A townie? Bet she's a looker, huh?"

"Sure you're only eleven, Josh?" Levi asked rhetorically before ruffling his son's hair. "I can't bring her to meet you, but I wish I could," he said more seriously. His heart clenched because he could imagine only two outcomes to this talk and either of them would cause him great personal pain.

"Why not?"

Levi sighed noisily, the sound scraping roughly along the inside of his throat. "She's not – not good for you to know," he admitted, kicking a rock into the water. It landed with a too-loud plop that sent ripples racing back to the bank of the river.

Josh froze almost unnaturally and stared hard at his father until Levi met his eyes. Then, Josh shifted a little. "If she's not good for me," he asked slowly, obviously thinking hard, "why is she okay for you? Is she – is she, uh, not.. Um.. Is she, uh.." He faltered, clearly unable or unwilling to make his dad feel bad but unable also to keep his curiosity to himself.

"She's a good person," Levi asserted, turning to face his son fully. "She is. She's just – not so good for you to know, right now."

"Does she know about me, then?"

He couldn't help his short bark of laughter. "Yes, yes she does. She's even sent you a birthday present or two over the years."

"You've never told me that."

Levi had no answer, not a thing he could say, so he just shrugged. "No."

"You're keeping secrets," the eleven-year-old stated, his voice suddenly firmer, as if he knew where he stood. "That's not good, Dad. You told me once that my friends shouldn't ask me to lie for them, 'member?"

The pain was building in his chest, making him want to grind his jaw against it. His spine tingled and his chest pounded with the need to howl – he kept it all under control. He had to. Josh did not know about the wolf. Only about the legends. And they had to stay legends so his son could stay blissfully human. Entirely able to shape his own destiny. "I remember," he said flatly. "And you're right to remind me, son." That there were different rules governing adults and children didn't occur to him – he had to be fair and plain and as open as he could be. Josh only had a father and would only ever have a father. "A friend – even a very special one – should never make you have to lie."

"You were _lying_ to me..."

The wounded sound in Josh's voice brought all of Levi's heart to focus on him. He took the boy's shoulders in his hands and spoke with firm tenderness, meaning every word. "I was keeping you safe. I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you I won't lie to you anymore."

"Then you'll let me meet her?"

Levi swallowed and closed his eyes. "I can't."

Joshua's eyes narrowed and it was clear to his father that the wheels in his head were spinning rapidly. "You – you like her."

_I love her. And I can't and I do and it's impossible._ "Yes, I do."

"Do you like her more'n me?"

"No!" Levi shook his son lightly for emphasis. "You're my son. I love you beyond my own life, beyond everything."

"Okay."

Josh dropped it at that point and, briefly, Levi was relieved, the area inside himself that had braced for pain was shocked at the peace that resided there instead. But only for a little while.

Because soon, Joshua proved himself to be a very dutiful and attentive son, telling his father they needed to spend more time together. Exorbitant amounts of time together.

"He's trying to keep you safe," Bella surmised one morning. Joshua was in school and Levi had run to Bella's cabin before he took off for a new job building small houses for the influx of new people that had moved here with the new chemical business. Sunlight streamed through the trees, but no one was around to see just then how Bella's skin glittered in the beams of light. "He loves you, Levi."

"I know it, Bella. I do. I just wanted to explain..." He took her in his arms, nuzzling the top of her head as she clung to him with desperation edging her limbs. "I don't know what to do, sweetheart."

"You're his dad," she murmured against his skin. "You're all he has and he's growing up and he needs you. Besides, you love him."

He had never told her how he felt about her; part of him didn't want to risk the possibility that he was just one of many that the seventy-plus-year-old vampire had cared about in her existence... Part of him heeded the bone-deep instinct and prevented him from telling her that he loved her. And part of it was a very human worry that she would have to move, soon. She would want to work and she was running out of places she could go where no one would know her... So he kept this – his only secret from her – to himself. "I love him." His statement was sure. He did love his son.

After a quick squeeze, Bella slid from his arms. "You don't have to choose, Levi. Go. He has to be your first priority. He's all you have left of Linda, and he's your flesh and blood. I – I'll be all right. I will." She smiled ruefully and reached up to cup his jaw in a hand still a bit warmed from contact with his body. "I love you, too. Enough to let you do what you have to do." She laughed a little though her eyes filmed over with tears that would not fall. "Wow, that was hard to say."

"You love me."

"I do. No, don't say anything, please. I knew this would have to happen and I didn't want to admit it to myself but I knew it would and so –" Her words had tumbled out so rapidly that it was all Levi could do to keep up with her. "And so I'll keep patrolling the borders like I promised. I will. You won't see me again."

She started to move away but Levi could not let her go. Not like this. He lunged for her, catching her up in his arms and feeling her own wrap around his shoulders. He held her up with his hands on her firm bottom and captured her lips with his own. It was a kiss filled with unspoken secrets. Caution, passion and farewell. This was all they had ever had of one another: Careful, bounded desire expressed with lips and tongues and blended breaths. Sighs and murmurs that slid into moans. His lips were almost tender as he let her slide down his body.

"Bella..."

"Shh..."

"I'll be back," he said, almost choking. "I can't –"

"He needs you. You're his dad." Her hands splayed on his chest, her fingers tracing cool designs on his skin. "I don't want to be in the middle of that. I won't be. I'll be – a ghost. A legend told around a campfire. The pale-face who runs the border by moonlight."

"You've thought about this, haven't you."

She met his eyes, her own luminous even though her face reflected light in a thousand sparkly prisms. "I've had to. I knew I'd have to say goodbye one day. I just didn't know –"

"What?"

"Didn't know it'd hurt so much."

"I –"

"No! Don't say it! No, I couldn't bear it. I'll – I'll keep watch, Levi. Tell the Council."

"I will." His voice splintered on its way out his mouth. His heart split likewise, hurting him almost unbearably as she stepped awkwardly away. She never was all that steady when she was moving at a human pace. "Be safe, Bella."

"I will. Go. Go before take you back myself."

He chuckled darkly at the image. "I will be back."

She turned and ran from him, her soft "I love you" carrying back to his wolf-sensitive ear.

**[+]**

Levi sat through the movie _Shane_ with Josh and winced a great deal. Especially when little Joey called, "Shane! Come back!" into the sky.

West Germany was admitted into NATO in 1954, it was in all the local papers when Joshua was twelve. But more interesting to Levi was that racial segregation was officially prohibited in schools. He didn't see any white kids clamoring to come to the school on the Rez, though, and the local kids didn't want to go into Forks. It was just something he noticed.

Because he needed to keep his mind focused on the present instead of the past. He still ran patrols and crossed her scent everywhere. True to her promise, though, he never caught sight of her. He guessed her senses were sharper than his own and he felt that she was watching out for him. In a lot of ways.

The Yankees won the World Series in '56, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers. Joshua was fourteen and interested in girls, but Ephraim's daughter Chrissy was his best friend.

When Chrissy turned thirteen, in '57, Annie threw her daughter a party. Quil and Laura and their son, a new Young Quil, were there as well as Old Quil and Theresa, who was very ill but not telling anyone why. She looked pale and drawn, but put a brave face on during the party. Annie embraced her gingerly, whispered, "I'm here if you need me," in her friend's ear and then pasted a smile on her face.

"Eph?"

"Levi. Hey." The two men withdrew to their old places on the worn chairs in the backyard. "How's it going?"

"Good," Levi responded by rote. "Josh's doing well in school. Better keep an eye on Chrissy, though..."

Ephraim was cursed with a beautiful daughter. "Oh?"

"Now, don't quote me, but I think Josh discovered his best friend is a girl," Levi said in a stage-whisper.

Eph laughed a little and then frowned. "Great. She's just a little girl."

"Welcome to the nineteen-fifties, my friend."

Ephraim leaned forward, his arms braced on his thighs. He looked to be about forty, when he was really forty-six. Not too bad, but he looked nothing like Levi, who was still a twenty-five-year-old in appearance. Chief Black was still chief and he eyed his friend, the current Alpha, narrowly. "When are you going to join the times like the rest of us?" he wondered quietly. "Stop phasing. Settle down?"

Involuntarily, Levi's eyes, mind and heart flew to the forest. "Not yet. Joshua's still –"

"A teenager. He's gonna be taller than you are pretty soon, and you're gonna look like his brother, not his dad. He's gonna have to know, Levi. You gotta tell him if you're not gonna stop phasing."

"I made her a promise," Levi whispered, softly so that only Ephraim would catch it. "I promised I'd go back to her, when I could." After he made this dark confession, he darted a glance at his oldest friend. "And then we'd run patrols together."

"Don't you now?"

"I haven't seen her in years...she made me a promise, too."

"Oh, Levi... Man, I don't even know what to say."

"Don't say anything."

"I thought you probably still–"

"No."

"Daddy! I want to open my presents before we have cake!"

Ephraim and Levi rose to their feet and turned to go back into the house. "Hey," the older man said, "if there's ever anything..."

"I know. I'm doing the right thing. I am. She knows it."

Ephraim clapped him carefully on the back. "You're a good man, Levi Uley."

Levi followed his chief indoors. He loved Joshua and enjoyed the young man his son was becoming. But that was the thing, and Levi could see it happening already – Josh was a teenager but he was going to be a young man sooner than otherwise. He'd be driving soon and then finishing high school and then he'd be an adult.

An adult human male. Who never would have to know the pain of phasing or the truth behind deadly vampires who preyed upon humans. That was worth every lonely moment, every wrenching of his chest.

Inside the Black's home, he spied Josh standing not too close but not too far from Chrissy's vivacious form. Levi exchanged a look with Ephraim, a smile, a wicked delight in his friend's discomfort. This was the good part of the day.

It was harder as he saw Old Quil supporting Theresa, Eph and Annie with their arms around one another, Quil and Laura and their young son. Levi's arms were empty – the one he loved was out there, somewhere.

An invisible Protector over people who didn't know she existed.

* * *

**When will they meet again? Check back next week.**

**Thanks for reading! ~ LJ**


	9. Renewal

**A/N: I know this is WAY early. Explanation down below. **

**Thank you so much for the amazing reviews for the last chapter! You guys are awesome! Were y'all teased? :D**

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* * *

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**Chapter Nine: Renewal**

_**With thanks to SagaDevotee for her swooning and to domysticated for her Italian translations!**_

"_Devi dirmelo!_" Bella demanded. _You have to tell me! _

The lone vampire was a female, her eyes burning crimson from a recent meal. "_Aro vuole che tu ritorni. Ha promesso di non punirti."_

"I don't care if Aro's promised not to punish me. I'm not going back there," Bella informed the most recent hunter. In Italian, she continued to elaborate. "I know you're just doing a job, or that Aro has promised you riches or a favor. You're not the only one who's come here over the years." The destruction she and Levi had feigned had been effective...but somehow, word got back to Aro about the golden-eyed vampire who lived in the Hoh forest. A vampire who had a shield.

It irritated Bella. That "Southern Gentleman," Jasper Whitlock! He'd turned stool-pigeon, she was fairly certain. If she ever ran into him again...!

The latest bounty hunter's dark blond hair scattered over the light dusting of late November snow at the northern border of the Quileute land. Bella had just come home from seeing one of her favorite movie stars, Gregory Peck, in _The Big Country_. The bounty hunter's scent had been prevalent in Port Angeles and Bella had enticed the stranger to follow her.

She had good instincts – she had been honing them for years, watching out for Levi...

Ruthlessly, she banished his face and the taste of his skin from the forefront of her thoughts. She needed to focus on the current intruder into her life. "You need to turn around and leave."

A rush of air brought an achingly familiar scent to her nose and Bella closed her eyes for the briefest instant to luxuriate in the smell of her beloved. She had to leave...she'd promised. _But what do I do about Anya?_

"_Attenta! Dietro di te!"_

Accordingly, Bella spun around as the light-eyed wolf with enormous paws and variegated gray fur emerged from the trees. "Wait! I'll make her go away!" she called.

As the first words she had said directly to him since her avowal of love five years, two months and four days prior, it was pathetic. He stopped, eyes wide and focused as his enormous chest expanded with his panting breaths. He still smelled like mangy, wet dog and long-time-dead turkey vulture. And she still loved him.

He let out a low, near-desperate-sounding howl that made her shiver in the best kind of way right through her center. Then he snorted as if to rid himself of a bad smell – Bella figured it was her own or Anya's vampire scent – and stalked to Bella's side, glaring down at the bounty hunter. He growled, his lips pulling back from his sharp white incisors, fur bristling all around his face and body, his tail straight and parallel to the ground.

"Go," Bella advised Anya, her focus almost entirely on Levi. "Go now."

Without a word, the stranger leapt gracefully to her feet and made a trackless retreat.

Levi's heart was pounding audibly as he stood otherwise motionless next to Bella, his body's heat emanating to surround her. She felt her eyes sting with venomous tears. "Levi..."

His own eyes were burning, their pale color almost glowing in his lupine face. A rumbling sound rolled from him as he took one long step closer to her. She swallowed – a completely involuntary emotional reaction – and lifted one hand to his muzzle. "Hey."

Shaking her hand off, he turned in a circle. It was a sight so familiar to her that it made her chest tighten in bittersweet remembrance. "You need me to turn around, Mr. Uley? Fine." Chuckling a little, she made a show of covering her eyes with her hands and turning carefully away from him. The popping, stretching and tearing sounds she would never forget were as loud to her as the crashing of a tree in a storm. Followed by the remembered noises of trousers falling to the ground and a soft grunt as he slid into them and buttoned them up.

Breath she strangely needed got stuck in her chest as she waited for him to tell her it was all right to turn around again. Thoughts of Anya and others who had been sent after her faded and there was only Levi. His devotion to his people, his love for his son, and her own welling of love for him. Seeing him up close was devastating, invigorating, joy-inducing and yet she wanted to weep. She had said goodbye... He hadn't followed and she understood. It hurt, but it was right.

"Bel -" the deep, rumbling voice choked off thickly.

With a gasp, she heard his steps crunch on the snow. "Is it safe to turn around now?" she wondered, afraid to show the depths and complications of her real feelings. The light jest of so many remembered like circumstances was safer than sobbing against his chest just now.

With a sound of dark relief, he moved behind her again, his arms wrapping around her and spinning her effortlessly. "Bella, Bella," he murmured against the top of her head. He inhaled deeply and laughed a little. His words rolled roughly from his mouth like rocks that had only been in the water a little while. "I've smelled you all over the Rez, you know. Your scent kept me from looking for you. Knowing you were nearby. I've – I've kept track of you."

She smiled against the heat of his chest. "Me, too. Oh, I've missed you..."

"Me, too. I – It was so hard, not going to find you for real."

He smelled, but it was a welcome smell and she parsed the scents of him as he held her. They seemed to rock against one another, a slow dance of renewal. "How's Joshua?"

"Good. Bella, I am so –"

Without a thought, she pulled back a little to place her fingers over his lips. "No. No regrets. He's sixteen, right? And he still needs his father. I can't –"

Levi grinned broadly before lightly biting one of her fingers. The sensation made her gasp as her entire body reacted in a completely sensual way. She shivered.

"He's on a date. Went to the movies tonight."

"Really? I was at the movies, too."

"That Gregory Peck movie?"

She laughed and allowed herself to trace his face with one hand, wondering if these few minutes would have to last her another five years. "Yeah. So he was there?" She frowned. "Wait. Levi, no. I can't be near him! I've tried so hard to stay away!"

Concern brought on his frown as he thought through the implications. "I can try to –"

She shook her head and stepped away from him. "No. I'll just –"

"Just what, Bella? Quit going to the movies? You've always liked them."

"Maybe – maybe I can just not go on date nights?"

At her strange suggestion, Levi threw back his head and laughed. A deep laugh, full and rich and heartwarming. "Are we arguing about movies and my son? I haven't clapped eyes on you in years, and _this_ is what we're talking about?" He closed the distance between them. "I need to just, just hold you. I kept waiting for the night I would go on patrol and not find your scent," he whispered roughly. "Quil would make these obnoxious comments and I'd be sure you'd leave."

"I promised I'd patrol," she reminded him, wrapping her arms about his muscled torso and thrilling to the knowledge that he could handle a vampire embrace.

"You promised you'd be a ghost," he reminded her in his turn. He nuzzled her hair again, smelling the wind and snow and, now, his own familiar scent just beginning to assert itself. "And you have been, you know. Have you heard?"

"I – I've heard some... And I kept wishing..."

"What?"

He pressed her more tightly against himself and she trembled. She loved him so much and had missed this contact with him every hour of every day for more than five years. "Wishing you were with me to hear them, too. Wishing you might be around one of those fires so I could see you. Sometimes wishing you'd just walk far enough away from them..."

"I scented you. I did. Listening to the stories the kids were telling about the ghost of a Quileute Maiden who guards our lands."

Bella pressed herself even more closely against him. "I've heard. The wolves are legendary, too." At his snort, she leaned back to look him in the eye, but her focus drifted to his lips. "But that wasn't all I was thinking about..."

His lips tilted as she watched them before shaping themselves to say, "Oh?"

"No..."

His smile left as he inhaled in a quick, sharp way. "My son." With a twitching grimace, he unexpectedly bent to pick her up, cradling her in his arms as he might a child. She stiffened for a moment, but only because it was so strange for him to carry her like this. "I've got time before he comes home. Can I – is it okay – if we go to your place?"

She laughed lightly; he was already running to the cabin. "I've only wished you were there every night for five years, Levi. Sure I'm not asleep and dreaming?"

He stopped before a cleared section of the forest – a place where trees had been burned and not replanted. Moonlight beamed to the gentle covering of snow which reflected the light and made the clearing very bright indeed as Levi stood there. "Not unless we're dreaming together," he said, his voice oddly grim for such a whimsical thought. Bella touched his cheek and he shook his head as a dog might to get rid of a pest. "Sorry, honey –" He started walking again, but his eyes were trained on her face and she relished the focused attention he gave her. "I can still call you that, can't I?"

Warmth seemed to drift over all of her skin and under it, too. Not just where his skin met her stony flesh, but all over her body. As if his continuing evident regard was liquid pleasure, poured generously out to her. She sighed and tucked her head under his chin, ignoring the irritating scents he emanated and forcing herself to consider only the good, manly aromas of pine, earth and sweat that came from him in such a uniquely appealing combination. It overrode his other, lupine odors. "For as long as you live," she breathed against his throat.

They were still bathed in the moon's radiance when he stopped and set her on her feet. "Bella." The air was suddenly thick with implications, it seemed to her. Heavy, too, with the years that had passed without changing either of them. Their feelings were still there. His sharpened his eyes, making the gray seem almost silvery as reflected moonlight glanced off the surface of his gaze.

She rested in the still-present circle of his arms. "Levi, I didn't mean to upset you –"

"No. I just want it out there. I want to – to be clear, now. You're here and it's like a miracle or something and I'm not going to lose this chance. I have not regretted any of the time I've spent with Josh."

"I know."

His expression was still so serious as he continued, his brows drawn down darkly on his skin. "He _has_ needed me, but he doesn't as much anymore." Surprisingly, Levi chuckled a little and his muscles relaxed as he slid his hands around to grasp hers. "He's going to movies now. He's got a thing with Ephraim's daughter. They're dating."

"Chrissy? I've seen them together," Bella chimed in with a grin. "Ah, I should have seen it coming."

Levi sobered again. "How? You've never met him. We've both made sure of that, right?" At her nod, he pushed a breath out between his lips. "So. Anyway. He's not going to need me for much longer, Bella."

Hope danced cautious fingers along her face. "Really?" It had never occurred to her that he might one day be free of what he considered his obligations.

"Really. And...I've thought about it, Bella. And ... I – I'm looking like Josh's brother, these days. Not his dad."

Bella winced, wondering what that would mean for his life and purpose. "What are you going to do?" Absently, she stepped further into his embrace to rub her face against his skin. Their hands remained clasped. "Will you stop phasing?" The idea hit her with two entirely separate slices. On the one hand, it hurt to think of him having to continue to put himself in danger as a werewolf, and the pain he had to endure each and every time he gave his body over to his inner wolf was a sacrifice for him. On the other hand, if he stopped phasing, if he lived his life out as a mortal – a human man – to stay with his son, to remain a part of his community where he was loved and highly regarded, would mean he would be lost to her. In a matter of years. Perhaps decades, but soon as she regarded such things. He would go the way of all men.

The possibilities flew through her mind, her imagination fleshing them out in two of Levi's heartbeats so that she was already sobbing harshly by the time he had given thought to her question. He released her hands and took her in his arms again. She tried to take comfort from him, knowing it might be the last time, if he opted to leave her and remain human. With a huge effort, she tilted her head back to meet his eyes, wanting to know what he was thinking.

"Bella," he whispered. "I love you. I want to be with you." He knelt before her in the snow. It immediately melted under his knees.

She gasped and stared incredulously at him. "Levi?"

"I've imprinted once, Bella. When Linda died, it almost killed me," he told her. It was something she knew already, but she had the sense that he was saying something of greater import than his prior marital history. "I never thought I'd love anyone ever again. I never knew I could, after I'd imprinted, you know? But I love you."

"Vampires...we sometimes find a mate... I've seen mated couples. I've – I've not met mine, but I can imagine how it would be for you." What was he asking her? Her mind raced over several possibilities, most of which left her feeling euphoric but sad, too. She tugged a little on his hands. "Come on, Levi... We should –"

"I want to be with you," he repeated, tugging back so that she was standing almost flush with him. His eyes were level with her breasts and part of her yearned to free her hands and press him to her. Instead, she slid her fingers from his and moved them to brush his short heavy hair. "If, if we were normal." He inhaled harshly. "If we were _human_, honey. If we were, I'd ask you to marry me. We'd have to wait until Josh graduates and I know he'll be all right. I can't tell him about the wolves, but he – he knows about you. It would be enough to tell him I'd be leaving to be with you," he said, his voice dropping and his arms wrapping around her hips. "It would be enough, honey. Enough to be with you. Enough for always."

"He knows about me?" She didn't know what he looked like, though they had likely shared a movie theater that evening. Didn't know his scent...but he knew about her. Her heart ached to think that Levi had shared her with his son in some way...at some point over the past several years. And she had not been able to share him with anyone. Loneliness briefly opened up a chasm within her mind and heart. A rending that was quickly patched and mended at her beloved's next words.

"Yeah. And sometimes...sometimes I see him watching me, you know?" She didn't, but she nodded because sometimes people just did that. "And it's like he's wondering if I'm all right."

She fell to the snow at that, her arms now around his shoulders. "I love you, and I hate to see you so torn. I want you to be whole, Levi."

"I am, when I'm with you." Without hesitation, he lowered his head and slid his lips cautiously over hers. "We're Protectors, Bella. Both of us. And I can continue to be one, but I can't stay where I am. I would have to – have to live away from the village. Away from...my son..." he finished on a whisper. She kissed his collarbone in silent support. "Eph and Quil will come see us like they already see you. I can hook up a generator and we can collect rainwater and use the River, like you already do."

She had to laugh quietly in the face of all his plans. "You've got this all figured out, don't you? You'll need food, sweetheart. And a kitchen and money to get all of that. I've got some, sure, but –"

He cocked one brow at her. "I can still work. You do."

"Yeah..."

He smiled a little and cupped her face in his hands as they continued to kneel in the melting snow. "So I guess what I want to know, Bella, is will you stay with me? I'd say marry me, but..."

Her breath came strangely fast at his unconventional proposal. "My kind don't generally marry, Levi. It's all right." She brushed her lips against his skin again, flicking the tip of her tongue to taste him in all his male anxiety. It was kind of sweet and so sincere and she wondered how long he had been planning this since they hadn't actually talked with one another for years. "You're really a wonderfully surprising man, Levi Uley."

"Uh, thanks. Is that a yes?" His eyes flashed with eager hope.

She answered him with her mouth and hands until his breath was a groan and his heart tried to beat right out of his powerful chest. He took that as the affirmation it was and swept her literally into his arms to continue to their destination.

When he left her cabin later, it was with a smile on his face and determination in his heart. And measurements for a Franklin stove for the cabin.

[+]

"Did you see the new book in the library?" Miss Weber asked, her cat-eye framed glasses perched precariously on her nose. "It's called _To Kill a Mockingbird_ and it's by a Southerner named Harper Lee. I wasn't entirely sure about it, you understand, but I read it so I could let the library patrons know if they should read it, too."

Bella crossed to the _New to Forks!_ table and picked up the plastic-wrapped library edition of the novel. The black band on the top of the front contrasted with the reddish brown on the rest of it. "Shoot all the bluejays you want if you can hit 'em. But remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird," she read from the book's back cover. "That sounds intriguing."

"Oh," Miss Weber said with vigorous nods, "it is!"

"Romance?"

"Not a lick of it. But still. If you like this sort of thing, Miss , you might want to be the first to check it out."

"Thank you," Bella said, flipping lightly through the heavy pages with her still-gloved fingers. So far, she had considered herself fairly fortunate in this regard – women wore gloves in public in some places, though this practice was diminishing, according to the television programs she had seen. Levi had managed to get a television for the cabin, which had surprised her.

. . .

"_It's so expensive!" she protested just before the Winter Olympics that year. "Levi, you shouldn't have."_

_He had grinned with pride and amusement as he muscled the thing in through the cabin's only door. "It's a good idea, you know. We can watch the television sometimes instead of going to the theater. And we can get news, too, without going into town and buying a newspaper." _

_She had consented and had been privately a little giddy to be able to watch television programs from the privacy of her own home._

. . .

The 1960 Summer Olympics were going to be in Rome and the evening news was previewing the events as Bella finished reading her latest library book for the sixth time. She was waiting for Levi...as she always did. Tonight, he was moving in with her. Officially. They were going to begin their life together.

She had hopes for that evening, she really did. In preparation, she was wearing a "little black dress" because every girl should have one. Sleeveless, it was a straight sheath and fell from a squared neck to just above her knee. With it, she wore black pumps; on it, she wore a brooch crafted of burnt orange Morgan Hill poppy jasper. It was a gift from Levi to symbolize the joy she had brought to his life and the joy he hoped to bring to hers.

She told him she was already so full of joy that any more might make her combust.

She heard him as she paced restlessly about the cabin, her fingers lightly touching on different knick knacks she had acquired over the years. A bookshelf with her favorite books she had purchased, including all of Austen's canon and Jane Eyre as well as recent bestsellers like _The_ _Catcher in the Rye_ by J.D. Salinger, _From Here to Eternity_ (the title captured her eye) by James Jones and _Atlas Shrugged_ by Ayn Rand. The sounds of running feet met her ears...crunching leaves, low laughter.

Laughter? _Feminine_ laughter?

Bella froze in vampiric stress. What was it? Who was out there? Had hikers found her cabin again? It had happened more often over the past couple of years, since Levi had begun bringing things to update her home. The periodic roar of the generator, an occasional spume of smoke from her chimney when Levi came to visit, the occasional set of clothes hanging up to dry outside (for as much as she loved her werewolf, his clothing did smell up the cabin when it was wet) – all of these things seemed to draw uninvited guests.

There was already a light on in the cabin. Already a bed dominating the room – Levi would need to sleep. The cabin was actually quite crowded and there was no way to vacate it as she had done back in the '40's when humans got too close. No way to pretend the armoire was gone, or the television.

"Bella, it's us," Levi called just before she was ready to bolt out the back window nearest the chimney.

Relief almost had her sagging against the door frame as she pulled the heavy wooden door open. "Hello," she called softly. She heard the heartbeats of five humans. Levi's was as familiar to her as any sound on Earth. "Annie, Theresa!"

Theresa had grown impossibly frail over the last years and Bella sighed to see her. Cancer, the physicians said. Theresa had suffered through a double mastectomy but had been left permanently weakened, it seemed. Bella flashed over to her to help her from Quil's back. The former Pack Alpha had also diminished physically since he had stopped phasing. Quil was in his sixties and almost looked it, these days; Ephraim was several years younger but also appeared to be his actual age. It was both familiar and strange to see her werewolf, her Levi standing with these men. It wasn't all that long ago that they all appeared to be about the same age, all hale and fast with strong white teeth and flashing smiles. Now, only Levi was the young-looking one of the group. He stood in pleated trousers and a white dress shirt that took her breath away. Strange that seeing him so _clothed_ would do that to her.

She dragged her attention away from him. "Theresa, good to see you," Bella murmured. "Would you like to come inside or...?"

Quil wrapped his arms around his wife. "I don't think there'll be room for all of us in there, Bella."

Annie grinned and produced a small bouquet of home-grown flowers. "Brought these for you."

Ephraim elbowed Levi and the humans laughed. Bella smiled uncertainly. "What is it?"

"Didn't think we'd let you live in sin, now, did ya?" Ephraim asked with laughter brimming through every nuance of his voice. "We're here to see you two put together."

Levi smiled crookedly at her and ran one hand nervously over his newly-trimmed hair. "Not my idea, but... I hope you don't mind?"

Her mind captured the moment immediately. If Levi were leaving his people...if his friends were aging...who knew how often they would be gathered together in the future. "Not at all," she whispered, extending her hand to him. "I'm honored."

As the sun set to their left, Bella and Levi joined hands and, repeating after Chief Ephraim Black, promised to love one another and care for one another all the days they both lived and walked on the Earth, under the Sun and through the forest. They promised, too, to protect the land and people of the Quileute Nation and all humans within their reach.

When their promises had been made, the men clasped arms and made solemn sounds of farewell. Annie had tears in her eyes that slipped into the creases at the corners of her mouth. "Watch out for him, Bella. We'll watch out for Joshua. He's like my own son, you know."

"I've heard," Bella replied, hugging the woman lightly. That Josh and Chrissy had become very serious was something Levi had told her, of course. "I wish them all the best, you know."

Annie wiped at her wet cheeks. "I know. You've been just wonderful. And I'm so happy for you two. I really am."

"What – what did Levi tell Joshua?"

"That he was going to find you," Annie said simply.

Levi had heard them, of course, and Bella met his direct gray gaze as he turned from his friends. A wind spun in the air, making a tiny little dusty cone and bringing some fallen pine needles and light twigs with it as Levi came to take her hand. "I told him I'd never lie to him again," her beloved said softly. "I had to tell him that much of the truth, anyway."

"Oh, Levi...I never meant to come in the middle."

He smiled gently into her eyes. "I know. You didn't."

She listened to the beat of his heart as it started to speed up just a bit while they stood, motionless, lost in the moment. It wasn't until Ephraim chucked Levi's shoulder that they snapped out of it.

With a rueful chuckle, Ephraim put a hand on each of their shoulders. "I hate to say it, but it's time to go. And – and I know Levi knows it, and I know that you, Bella, have always known it but – but I don't think we can see either of you in the Village. And maybe not even Forks. Not Levi, anyway. He's not supposed to be here."

Pain shot through Bella as she nodded in silent acknowledgment. Levi was, in essence, being cast out of the society of his friends. His people. Away from his son. For her.

"I'm so sorry..."

"Don't be. I can call from a pay phone," Levi said as he pulled her next to his body.

"But –"

Levi shushed her with fingertips on her lips and she had to smile. Then, he turned to the others. "Thank you. Thank you for everything."

"And that's our cue," Ephraim quipped. "Good luck, kids."

Bella snorted and their friends laughed as they turned to go. "They parked about half a mile from here, on the trail," Levi told her as the Chief and all who were with him disappeared from view.

"So...we're alone..."

Her words charged the air around them and Levi picked her up to carry her, in true bridal tradition, across the threshold of their cabin. The bed beckoned.

"I know we can't...fully...be _together_," Levi murmured, his hot hands moving restlessly over her before sighing and relaxing and settling her atop him, both still completely dressed, all the way down to their shoes.

"The venom, I know," Bella said against his throat.

"I figured we'd get creative."

"Me, too."

He laughed softly, moving her up and down on his chest as he did so. "So what are we waiting for, Mrs. Uley?"

She shivered to hear the name he gave her. "Oh, my. I like that. A lot."

"So do I."

They might not be officially _married_, but Bella understood that had been the purpose of the impromptu ceremony. Her last name was a matter of complete indifference to her usually, but taking his was special. Proper, in her way of looking at it. Right. She sighed happily. "Thank you." And then she kissed him.

They spent the night finding out just how creative they could get about making love without actual sexual intercourse. It turned out that imagination and enthusiasm went a long way.

"But we're going to need another bed," Bella decided as the sun glinted through the curtain on her eastern window. They saw the sunshine from the mattress that now sat on the floor at a skewed angle.

Levi had no eye for the window or the broken bed-frame. She could see that his focus was entirely on her bare skin where the sun refracted tiny rainbows. "Later..." he said roughly before blocking the sunbeam with his body and trying his best to begin their first day as outcasts in the most pleasurable way possible.

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**A/N: I posted this early to do a little shameless (?) advertising. WKY has been nominated in five categories at the Twilight Gem Awards, Pearl Round (link on my profile), and others of my stories have also been nominated. IF you are the kind of person who likes to vote for these things, please consider going to my profile and clicking on the link to check out this Wolf-Centric Award Round. **

**Now, because I like to keep to my word, I am going to do my very best to have the next chapter out to you by Wednesday of next week so you don't have to wait too long between updates. Chapter Ten is going to be long and busy, but I will do my best!**

**Thank you all for your support of this story. I love hearing from you. :-) ~LJ**


	10. Conflicts

A/N: I know, this was going to be posted on Wednesday and I'm EARLY. It was also going to span more than twenty years, not just a couple…but… Sometimes, a situation requires exploration and I thank **SagaDevotee** for setting me straight.

This story is now 21 or _possibly_ 22 chapters long. It is still outlined until the final scene…but it is kind of hard to cover the 1960's - 1980's in about five thousand words…

My thanks to the following websites for their information:

ht tp: / /www. ramblingsandthoughts. com/ Quileute_Wolf_Pack_Genealogy. pdf

and

ht tp: / /www. twilightlexicon. com/ ? page_ id=9

Thanks, too, to **WolvesCanEatMe** and **missrebecca_12 **on twitter for chiming in to answer a couple of questions for me! :)

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**Chapter Ten: Conflicts**

**[+]1962[+]**

"Stop it right there, bloodsucker!" Levi called under the darkness of the new moon. Instinctively, he shoved Bella behind him as they stood in challenge in front of the strange vampire who was crossing too close to the border of the Rez.

"Are you from Volterra?" Bella demanded, her voice hard and sharp as a stone knife.

The two of them had been going to ride his motorcycle into Port Angeles to see the movie adaptation of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ – with Bella's favorite actor, Gregory Peck – when they had scented the strange, black-eyed vampire.

"Where? Nevah hoid of it," the stranger said. He sniffed the air and swaggered closer. "So, doll," he said to Bella and ignoring Levi entirely – proving his foolishness, as far as the Quileute was concerned – "Whatcha doin' out here all by yerself? And who's this stinky fellah? Doesn't smell like food. And ya've got yerself some strange peepers, eh?"

Bella stepped out from around Levi as if she would defend him. "He is not a man like other men," she said. "And I don't follow your diet, Nomad."

"Then you shouldn't mind if I hunt here!" With a laugh, the nomad took off, leaping over Bella and Levi.

Bella took off after the red-eyed bloodsucker and Levi spent a whole second frozen in terror for her before his instincts grabbed his body and phased him right out of his movie-theater clothes. He howled and launched himself in pursuit.

The nomad had caught the hours-old trail of some hikers and was following it. Levi knew these paths and the scents that had traveled them. The hikers were _friends of Josh's_ from back when they were in high school! Fury and the bone-deep need to protect the people gave further speed to his limbs as he pounded the forest floor in speeds unknown to humans. Bella's scent kept him centered; the nomad's had him seeing red.

"Hey!" Bella's guttural protest hit Levi as might a punch to his ribs. It was followed by a series of sounds that Levi had a vague memory regarding: the sound of boulders falling upon each other in an avalanche. It was a sound the Cullen males had made, almost thirty years ago. "You will not!" his wife – for so he thought of her and always would – shouted. The reverberations of her growl reached him and he snarled more loudly.

The nomad had one hand tangled in Bella's hair – she had it down and was dressed for a night on the town – so that he could twist her around. _No! Bella! Leave her alone, bastard!_ Levi thought, but of course he couldn't really yell the words. He had to present his demands more plainly but he could not put his beloved in danger.

The nomad laughed. "Well isn't this the funniest thing, toots? Ya got a bodyguard, do ya? Never smelled somethin' like that – wait." His thirsty eyes widened before he laughed. "This is the fella that was with ya, eh? Crazy!"

The laughter was all that was needed for the dynamics of the situation to shift. Levi tore a furrow in the earth as he sped to the nomad's back and nipped at his head. Bella took advantage of the split-second of time when the nomad's fingers weren't gripping her hair to spin and move away. Relief and the need to release his vengeance were freed as Levi jumped on the nomad and, using teeth and the powerful muscles of his jaw and neck, ripped the intruder's head off his shoulders.

Levi didn't phase back to his human skin until Bella had run back to the cabin and returned with a change of clothes and a new Zippo lighter. When the nomad had been set on fire – with his head going into the flames last because Levi was feeling vindictive – Levi relaxed enough to phase and take his Bella into his arms.

"Are you all right?" He buried his nose in her hair, snorting he caught a whiff of the other vampire's lingering scent. With his own skin and breath, he sought to cover over those smells.

"I'm fine," she assured him, squeezing him tightly. "Nothing lost, broken or damaged. My head hurt a bit, but I'm made out of pretty stern stuff, you know?"

"Still," he said, putting her a bit away from him, "I think we should practice fighting together. Since we're on patrol together, we should have a strategy."

He could see the flaring of stubborn independence in her eyes and braced himself for one of her – rare, but not unheard of – diatribes on how she was older than he was and had managed for decades just fine, thank you very much. Her lips thinned and her brow furrowed but she didn't whisk herself out of his arms and that was just fine with him.

"Okay. You're right. I need to learn how to fight with you."

Levi blinked in surprise. "Well then, why don't we work on that tonight and we can go to the movies tomorrow?"

Bella drew her lower lip briefly between her teeth and made a big show of eyeing him up and down. "Before or after we get you dressed again? Gotta tell you, sweetheart, I am really glad you don't have skin issues anymore."

He wrapped her up definitively in his arms once more. "Well aren't you kinda like my wife?"

"For all intents and purposes," she returned, using their usual phrase when they discussed the situation. "Two years."

"And they said it wouldn't last..."

He phased and ran back through the woods to their cabin while Bella took the motorcycle. In order to keep things quiet, she set the cycle in neutral and pushed it, running carefully. This kept their speed less than it otherwise was, but Levi didn't worry about it. If they were seen, well...

They'd been seen before.

. . .

"_Nuh-uh! You're just, like, drunk, man. I can smell it from here. You got into your dad's liquor cabinet again."_

_White kids hiking. Boys who were too young to be drinking legally, Levi figured, but were sauced anyway. At least they weren't driving but had camped for the night._

"_Am not. I saw 'em, I tell ya." The storyteller leaned in toward the campfire, his short blond hair a thatched mess over his head as he looked blearily in earnest at his two buddies. "They were runnin' together, jus' through the trees. She had long hair and had real white skin. Like a ghost! And she was followed by this huge wolf. I mean, it was a _huge_ monster."_

"_You fream!" the most sober of the trio snapped, telling the blond kid that he was acting like a loser. "You're just makin' this up to practice for tellin' Kelly."_

"_I ain't a shuckster! I'm tellin' ya straight. See, she was running, and boy, she was stacked, y'know? I could see her silhouette and...wow. So she's running and the wolf is following her and I almost called out to her to be careful, because, you know, man! She slowed down, right? And the wolf came up beside her and she pet his fur! Right there! This wolf was as big as a horse!"_

"_The Indians have legends," the heretofore silent young man of the trio said, tossing a stick into the flames. "Maybe you saw one of 'em, Stu."_

"_You nerd!"_

_Levi chuffed in a curious combination of disbelieving amusement and concern before padding off to continue his patrol._

. . .

The rumors had started, but neither of them could figure out a way to make them stop without leaving the area – something neither wished to do. With as many vampires as they had seen in the past eighteen years, neither of them wished to leave the humans unprotected.

Still in his wolf form, he inhaled deeply as he reached the home he shared with his Bella. _Ephraim? Here?_

Since Theresa's death last year, and "Old" Quil's subsequent decline, Levi regarded surprise visits from his old friends with as much trepidation as pleasure. Ephraim's scent went inside, as did Bella's, and Levi barked softly outside the door.

"Just the Chief," Bella answered. "Come on in. The man is grinning from ear to ear so I'm guessing it's good news."

Since he'd lost his clothes when he'd phased earlier, Levi was oddly a little relieved when Bella popped out the door, a pair of trousers in her hand. "Here you go," she said with a broad grin.

He phased and let her get a smiling eyeful before he tugged the trousers up his legs and followed her inside.

"Eph!"

"Levi!"

They embraced briefly, pounding one another on the back. Levi heard his old friend "oof" a little and remembered to be much more gentle. "What's the word?"

"I'm a grandpa!" Ephraim blurted, his dark eyes all but disappearing as he grinned. "Tom and Irene had a son! His name's William, but we're calling him Billy."

Bella clapped her hands together once. It sounded like rocks slapping one another. "Congratulations! Is Annie enjoying being a grandmother?"

Ephraim sat on the hearth, drawing his knees up as if he were a teenager again. "Yeah. She's loving it. She's sewn a bunch of clothes. Tom is crowing, Irene is glowing..."

"And you've turned into a poet in your old age," Levi finished with a smile as he pulled a chair up. It scraped against the floor, the sound joined by another scraping as Bella pulled up a recently-painted blue chair. "Well, I'm happy for you all, Eph. How's everyone else?"

Levi tried to make the question casual, but it wasn't, not entirely. One of the things he had planned on doing in Port Angeles that evening had been to call his son. Lately, Josh had been giving him the serious silent treatment, going so far as to hang up the phone when he heard it was his father on the other end. So, any news would be welcome, in Levi's estimation.

Chief Black sighed mightily and rose to pace the limited floor of the cabin. From the hearth to the side of the bed and back, his strides were measured. "Have you...spoken to your son, lately?"

An icy dagger swept effortlessly through Levi's middle. "I've tried, Ephraim. But he won't talk to me." Bella reached for his hand, but he avoided her touch and thrust himself to his feet in agitation. He heard her quickly indrawn breath but – this one time – ignored it. He loved her but it was hard for him to take comfort from her when she was, in part, one of the reasons he had left his son. Two years ago, it had seemed reasonable; Josh was an adult, he had a girl he loved, a job, a house given to him since he, Levi, wouldn't be needing it anymore. Two years ago, it had seemed as if Joshua was not at all unhappy to gain his relative independence by having his father leave to go "search for the woman he'd left behind" years ago.

Flames sputtered as they encountered a damp strip of wood. Bella – who would always be a little leery around a blaze – started a bit in her chair. Two years ago, his first instinct would have been to go to her.

Just now, he hurt too much to bring comfort to anyone. "Is he," he paused, dreading the answer. "Is he all right?"

"Joshua? Oh, he's fine," Ephraim assured him with an extended hand. "He and Chrissy..." The Chief made a gesture with his hands and Levi snorted. Eph did likewise while Bella looked confused. "So, they're getting married."

Bella's voice was tentative when she whispered, "Is Chrissy pregnant, Ephraim?"

"She is, Bella."

Levi's mind was racing. Memories flooded his whole awareness. He didn't register Bella's approach, her face alight with subdued congratulations. He didn't see Ephraim catch her shoulder under his hand. He only saw Joshua...and Linda. Linda's strained face, pale underneath her darker skin tone. Joshua's wailing as if he sensed his mother was dying before he'd become acquainted with her from the outside. And then years of Josh... Laughing, crying, falling, running. When he had helped him learn to ride the bike Bella had bought for his birthday...when they'd skipped stones in the river...a baseball game...hikes in the woods... Josh's face when he had admitted, "I kissed Chrissy tonight, Dad."

And the laughter in his eyes as he had said, "Go on, Dad. I'll be okay. You said she'd be waiting for you? Really, have fun._ I_ plan on it, anyway."

"Well," Levi managed after a few minutes, his voice hoarse. "I wish he'd talk to me."

"Levi –" Bella began, reaching out to him again.

But he had gone past feeling for anyone save himself, and though he acknowledged with a part of him that it was unfair, Levi let the change happen – he let the animal within him have full sway so that he exploded from the confines of his humanity, burst through the closed door and howled with heartache.

"Let him go," Ephraim advised as Levi shook himself. "He'll come back."

Levi didn't stay to hear what she said in response. He just had to run.

When he returned twenty hours later, Bella was waiting for him in front of the cabin, a new pair of pants draped over her shoulders. He knelt in front of her and she embraced his powerful neck. He rolled on the ground with her with her as he had at Cape Disappointment, so many years ago. _ I'm sorry for running off, _he thought. _ Sorry if I worried you. I love you, my Bella. I do. I do._

What he did aloud was whine and rumble in his chest at her – a sound he knew she enjoyed. She buried her face in his fur and made the purring sound in her chest that she made when she was content. The jangling, painful feelings that tore about Levi's heart were temporarily soothed by this brief connection. Even if his trousers were really dirty afterward.

"I love you, Levi Uley," Bella whispered when he had finally ceased his rolling around. She sat astride his ribs as he lay belly up on the pine needles. He met her golden gaze, seeing the deep feelings she bore reflected there. "I wish I could be what you need, right now. But believe me, I love you."

With a low growl, he rolled to his side. She tumbled off of him while he phased back into his own skin. "Bella..."

She took his hand and led him inside. For a while, he let himself forget.

**[+]1963[+]**

"The_ Beverly Hillbillies _are a riot," Levi remarked as they arrived in Port Angeles to go to the movies.

Bella scoffed as they maneuvered through the Friday night traffic. "They're funny, okay, but Judy Garland is _sublime_. And really, sweetheart, I think you'll like _I Could Go On Singing_. It's about...her seeing her son again."

Levi tensed before keying off the ignition with deliberate slowness. "Bella, we've talked about this."

"You've got a grandson now, remember?"

He closed his eyes as she pressed herself against his back on the motorcycle. "I remember." The ache in his chest was pervasive and he rubbed at his breastbone with the heel of his hand. "Y'know what, Bella? I'll call him right now, from the phone at the theater." The resolve twisted his gut, but he nodded at it anyway.

She stood, smoothing her jeans and adjusting her cashmere sweater before sliding her hair out of its ponytail and finger-combing it into submission. "Do you want me to get our tickets or wait for you nearby?" She bit her lip a moment and stared up into his face.

Wistfulness washed over him; kissing her – allowing himself to forget his ever-present melancholy – would have been welcome. "Stay nearby?" he asked, an edge to his request.

She nodded. "I'll wait in the lobby. Got it."

They walked, hand-in-hand, to the theater. He bought tickets and they went inside. She emptied her change purse into her hand and he thanked her with smile and caress on her cool cheek. "I'll try not to be too long."

He hardly fit inside the tiny confines of the phone booth, and sent a rueful, amused expression to Bella, whose eyes were trained on him from across the carpeted lobby. Questions, soft laughter, and an indiscreet embrace or two were all Levi took the time to note before he dialed the number to his son's phone and waited for the operator to tell him how much it would cost to talk. The coins slid into the black metal phone with a cold, hard sound that was discouraging.

"Hello?"

Levi's throat went tight in trepidation. "Josh?"

A pause, heavy with the weight of too many hang-ups, followed before, "Yes. It's me."

Relief sent tears to Levi's eyes in the impersonal, cramped space where he was finally reconnecting with his son. He sought out Bella's golden gaze, knowing she was intensely interested. She smiled tentatively at him and he nodded before closing his wet eyes and focusing entirely on his son.

"Good, good. I, uh, wanted to see how you were, Josh."

"You'd know if you ever came to visit."

An axe blade through his heart would not have hurt like that. "I've told you –"

A baby cried in the background and that lanced through Levi as well. He felt riddled with wounds. "You said you loved me. You told me that. Now, I didn't mind you leavin' to go find whatever her name is –"

"Isabella. Her name's Isabella."

"Isabella what?"

Levi took a deep breath. "Isabella Uley."

Joshua could curse a blue streak through the telephone wire. Levi didn't even wince, but was relieved Bella didn't hear him. Though she'd lived over eighty years, they figured, she was a lady and shouldn't have to hear this stuff. Finally, Josh called out, clearly to his wife, "Sorry, Chrissy. I'll finish up and get right back." Then, Levi heard his son mutter under his breath before murmuring, "Fine. Okay, fine," in a voice so quiet that Levi knew he shouldn't hear it, exactly.

"Son?"

"Look, Dad. I know you left to find the second love of your life or whatever and that's fine, but I think you should meet your grandson, you know? Bring your wife. She's my stepmom now, and it's only right."

"Huh?"

"Well, what? Were you lying to me? Did you run off to do something else, dad? Join the Foreign Legion? Run off to Mexico? What the hell is it that's more important than your grandson?"

"What's his name?"

A snort sounded clearly through their connection. "I'll introduce you and tell you his name if you come meet him. Otherwise, don't bother calling me. Ever. Again. Understand?"

"I'll be there," Levi whispered, mind racing. "I guess there are a couple things I need to tell you." Eph was going to lose it, but Levi could not lose his son.

They made arrangements to meet, with Levi only barely remembering to make it later rather than sooner because he was supposed to be "far away" in some nebulous place. He and Bella would have to work that out.

After replacing the receiver, he unfolded himself from the phone booth, seeking Bella. She moved at a fast human speed and reached first for his face, to cup his jaw in her cold hand. "Did he hurt you?" she whispered. He could smell the additional venom in her breath. She was more upset and angry that her face was displaying. Her fingers lightly brushed at the corner of his eye and he winced. "Yeah. Sweetheart, is there anything I can do?"

He caught her hand in his and pressed it briefly to his cheek before enveloping it in his own. "This is good. So, are we going to see the movie?"

"Sure you want to?"

He sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Right." They stood, people flowing around them, and the smell of Aqua Velva aftershave almost overpowering. Bella wrinkled her nose at the same time that he did and the two of them burst into laughter. "C'mon," he said, "forget the movie. Let's get out of here and take a walk."

He told her about what Josh had said, about the ultimatum issued, as they strolled casually in front of the closed shop fronts. "I need to go," he said. "But I can't bring you."

"Of course not." Her words were rapid. "We've worked so hard to keep him safe. And he's got a son, right? And with Chrissy as the mom, the bloodlines will be really strong. I can't go anywhere near them, but – but I wish I could go with you, you know. I want to."

"Hell, I didn't even think about it with Chrissy. Yeah." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head without breaking stride. Then, he slid a smile to her. "Any other sage words of wisdom? Seriously, now, because you're...older and wiser," he teased. Now that he had determined to go and Bella supported him, he felt better.

She snorted softly. "Yeah. Are you going to tell him about the wolves? He's twenty-one now, right?"

"I'm gonna have to, yeah."

"Then he'll know you live close by."

"Crap. Yeah." He clenched his free hand. "And he'll know you're close by and he'll want to meet you."

"And we can't let him. Want me to – to go away for a while?"

Pain and stark panic had him stumble under a streetlamp, right in front of the Five and Dime. "No! What the hell, Bella?"

"Okay, okay. I'll stay. But if I see him coming, I'm running."

He slid his palms up her arms, over the soft sweater to the cool silk of her skin. "All right."

"Go tonight? Since you know he's home and everything?"

He frowned and pulled both of them back to lean against the steel frame of the door to the dime store at his back. He didn't want to make a spectacle of them, so he just held her loosely against himself and scowled over the long row of shops opposite. The night was clouding up. "I could get there faster...you know..." he told the air above her head.

She chuckled. "I can be trusted with the bike, you know." With a light kiss he felt through his shirt, she said, "Go on. I'll see you back at the cabin later."

"What about the sublime Judy Garland?" he teased, moving them both away from the store and back to where he had parked the motorcycle. He tossed the keys up in an arc for Bella to catch.

"Not as interesting as Gregory Peck, of course." The keys rang a bit too loudly in her bare hand, but no one noticed.

They were in a well of lamplight, so he didn't crush her to himself as he wished. "I love you. Adore you. Wish you could come. I wish...sometimes..." That you were human. That we could be normal. That I could be human. That there were no vampires and no werewolves and we could just...be. And you would be a grandmother and play with the baby and...

She had been watching his face, seeing who knew what regrets stream behind his eyes. Her own eyes were filled with the tears her kind could not shed. "I wish, too."

After a quick kiss, he turned from her and headed for the nearest stretch of trees. Then he stripped down, rolled his clothes into as tidy a bundle as almost thirty years of practice had taught him, settled on the ground so that the clothes would remain attached to his leg, and phased.

_Gonna go see my son. See my grandson. Wonder what he'll say? Will he need to see my phase to believe it? Will he think his old man's a loon?_

Conflict and hope battled within his chest as he pounded through the forest on the fastest route to the Village.

It was too late when he remembered he should have called Ephraim first.

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**A/N: What will Josh say? Will the relationship be renewed or permanently severed? How will this affect the Bella/Levi dynamic…? Mark this story as an Alert or, as they said in the sixties, "Don't touch that dial!"**


	11. Reconciliation

**A/N: I have the biggest grin on my face right now. Thanks for the wonderful reviews and the sympathy you're showing for my species-crossed sweethearts! We're back in Bella's mind now, which will change a few things... **

**My thanks to katmom and SagaDevotee for their willingness to reassure me on one or two points. I do appreciate you!**

**Thank you so much for reading! ~LJ**

**

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**Chapter Eleven: Reconciliation**

"Marie! Hey, I didn't know you'd be in town!"

Unsurprisingly, Bella ignored the greeting. She was following Levi's heartbeat – a rhythm she could hear distinctly and recognize as her beloved's within a mile or so – as long as she could. She heard it speed, heard it stress and knew he had phased. She blew a quiet breath through her lips and was going to climb on the BSA cycle when a youngish man jogged up to her, an open smile on his face.

He had curly brown hair and deep brown eyes that crinkled at the corners when he grinned. "I didn't know you rode a bike! Wow, wait 'til Helen hears about that."

Blinking, Bella tossed her hair back over her shoulder to give the man her full attention. "Pardon me? I don't believe we've met." In order to avoid shaking hands with the man, she fumbled in the pocket of her jeans to find her hair band so she could put her hair up for the ride back to the cabin.

The man blushed a deep wine color from his throat into his cheeks. The scent of his blood resonated within her to an extent, but nothing she couldn't control. "I – I'm real sorry, ma'am. Sorry. I thought you were my cousin, Marie Swan. You look just like her, I swear."

Perplexed, Bella said a little distantly, "I don't think I have any family in the area. I'm from Italy."

Instead of making him go away, the statement seemed to galvanize him into further social intercourse. "Really?" Thrusting his hand out, he grinned so broadly she had to smile in return. "I bet we _are_ related! Geoffrey Swan. I have family in Italy! My great uncle Jimmy went there with his wife after he finished teaching here." He paused and Bella shook her head in ignorance. Mr. Swan continued, lowering his voice to a confidential level. "See, he married an Indian, you know? And back then, that was something nobody talked about. They left the area. But one of their children made it back and you look just like part of the family. You might be one of the Italian Swans."

His enthusiasm touched her and Bella felt that she might indeed be a Swan. It would explain, perhaps, her sense of kinship with this area. She had felt at home in it almost immediately. "I'm Isabella. Isabella Uley," she murmured, finally risking a brief handshake. He cast a curious look at her cold fingers, but then darted a glance at the motorcycle, nodded minutely and grinned again. This man was the best-humored human she had ever encountered.

"Uley! Say, you're a local girl, then? Wait, from Italy, you said, so really, you've just come back home! Welcome! Hey, I know – you need to meet my wife. We should have lunch."

A hundred thoughts and answers flew through her mind. She was supposed to be here secretly, but Levi was going to be revealing their presence anyway and he had told his son about her. And wouldn't it be something if she could find out who she was, after all? If she looked like this man's cousin, mightn't she be? She didn't now who she was...but was it possible?

"It would be nice to meet your wife. Perhaps lunch or coffee here in town would work." She grimaced. "I don't have a phone, though."

Darkness deepened overhead and the cone of light she shared with this human seemed to shrink somewhat. Bella heard a slightly shuffling step and she looked in its direction to see a woman with Auburn hair and a loose-fitting dress come around the corner.

"Geoff? Geoffrey Swan? Where are you? I know that I'm slow and all, but _really_."

Color flooded the man's face again and he offered Bella a rueful glance. "Whoops. Honey, I'm here. I think I found a cousin!"

Bella detected a heartbeat, small and rapid, that joined the woman's slightly accelerated rhythms. She was pregnant. Perhaps, Bella thought, she did belong to this family. Perhaps there were ties to the area that she hadn't guessed at, ever.

Perhaps she really did belong here. Isabella Swan. Wouldn't it be something to have a name of her own?

After being introduced to Helen Swan and told about their impending baby – due in '64 – Bella and Helen made arrangements to have lunch. "I'll bring the photographs," Helen assured her. "You really do look remarkably like the Swan side. Your eyes...they're the wrong color – Oh, they're pretty, don't get me wrong! – just like all the other Swan women. That lift there at the outer corner," she went on, her head tilted thoughtfully. "I'm into genealogy and this fascinates me."

Inured to the notion of having to eat and then vomit, Bella still managed to smile as Geoffrey put his hand on Helen's back to lead her away. They were going to go back home. They had a place in Forks and, knowing Bella was married to a Uley, they just assumed that she'd be able to join them in Forks.

Bella thought a pair of big sunglasses might be enough to disguise her appearance. She let herself think about it as she rode home to wait for Levi to return from his visit with his son and grandson.

"Gracious, I hope this goes well," she mused as she pulled up to the cabin. "I really do."

After lighting the fire in the hearth, Bella tried to distract herself from imagining what was happening in LaPush. Did Levi run into trouble on the way to Joshua's house? Did Joshua come out to see his dad as a wolf or did Levi just go knock on the door and have awkward introductions to the baby? What did the baby look like? What was his name?

There was a mirror on the top of the chest of drawers so that she and Levi could check for "details" when they were preparing to go anywhere. She examined herself in it, now. "Isabella Swan," she whispered to her reflection, wondering if that was truly who she might be. Introductions to a grandson, introductions to a possible relative... What a strange evening. Did Geoffrey see truly? Helen was going to bring photographs. They might not hold answers but...they might.

She heard a light pattering of rain begin off to the west. It moved toward her, tapping on the cabin's roof within minutes. As the rain continued, she focused her attention outside, listening for the distinctive heartbeat she knew so well.

He didn't come home that night.

**[+]**

"This is ridiculous," Bella groused to herself as the sun rose over the Hoh forest. "He's fine. Of course he's fine. He probably had to stay to keep up appearances. But then, how did he get there? On paws?"

Her eyes were growing dark with her worry when the human-paced heartbeat she had been waiting for reached her ears. She had been walking aimlessly around and around the cabin, feeling stupid but unable to actually go inside and read or something while she waited. So when Levi appeared, lightly dampened with dew, she was looking right at him, hands clasped in front of her.

He looked like he'd been to Volterra, met Aro and returned. Bella felt sick.

"Levi," she murmured, reaching for him as he hesitated just out of her arm's reach. "Are you all right?"

His eyes were tight at the corners, his forehead uncharacteristically wrinkled with whatever it was he was thinking. His clothes were rumpled, which didn't surprise her – they must have got wet clear through while he was in his fur the night before. But it was the strange, complicated emptiness about his gaze that most concerned her. His gray eyes told her he had been wounded. He wasn't all right at all. She was afraid to reach for him again...what if he had decided that his human life was more valid for him? That being a grandfather to his grandson was more needful to him than living with her?

"Joshua."

She nodded, encouraged that he could say his son's name. "You saw him."

"Yeah. His name's Joshua. Junior."

Bella's brow rose. "Your grandson?"

He continued to study her face and finally – finally – his skin met hers. She sighed audibly in her relief and leaned into his heated touch. His own breath came out in a heavy, layered exhalation as he drew her into his embrace. "Bella...Isabella..."

"I'm here, sweetheart. Always. I'll always be here."

His thickly muscled chest and back rippled, emotion tightening his arms and voice. "I – I saw them all. Josh and Chrissy and Little Josh. Honey, the baby reminds me of Linda and Ephraim and that's – that's good, isn't it?"

"Absolutely."

"They let me hold him. And then – Josh took him away and – and we had to talk."

She heard his voice crack on that last word and Bella drew slightly away. "Want to go inside and talk in front of the fire? I could make you some coffee. Instant, but –"

"Yeah."

He moved as fluidly as ever, but something had gone out of his step and Bella's mind whirled trying to think of what she could do for him, to ease whatever pain he was feeling right now. Usually, Levi's step was light and graceful. Whether he was teaching her to fight like a werewolf – something they still worked at – or they were slow-dancing under a rare clear moon, he moved with inhumanly beautiful power and stealth. But that morning, his step was heavy with every pound of muscle he carried so effortlessly, loud with his discordant temper, and angry.

"Maybe not coffee right now," he said after a moment, his fingers flexing and curling in silent accent to his restless movements.

She crossed to their bed and curled up in the corner of it to give him the illusion of space in their small home. "All right. Tell me?" It wasn't a demand – they both had felt their way into understanding the other's need for personal space over their years together. She had met him nineteen years ago...a very long time in human years, and not entirely insignificant in her own. Everything she knew, Bella felt, would be needed in the next hour or so.

"I went there as a wolf."

"I know."

"When I changed back and got dressed, I was drenched. Went to his door anyway and he opened it and –" Levi grabbed at his short black hair, pain carved into his face. "Damn it! It was like he'd all of a sudden got all grown up, honey. He's changed so much, you know? I guess, being here with you and not seeing any of 'em, really, I forgot how that happened." He visibly calmed himself and continued. "He looked at me all weird and said, 'Dad?' like he didn't want to think _this_ was _me_." Tears clogged his voice as he sank to his knees next to their bed. Bella rolled forward to her stomach, bringing her head to his, where it rested on the mattress. "I told him it was me and he looked confused but called for Chrissy, and Chrissy brought the baby and told me his name was Joshua, Junior. Like his daddy."

"It's a good name," Bella ventured, not feeling that she should do more than speak confidingly near his ear. Tension and sorrow vibrated from every taut line of his body.

"I got to hold him, Bella. I did. My grandson. I felt – wow. It was just amazing." She could only offer him a nod as she never had and never would have a child or grandchild of her own.

"Then what?"

He inhaled and straightened his back before climbing up on the bed and pulling her in his arms. An anxiety she hadn't really acknowledged bled from her, then, and she relaxed in his arms. He breathed her in, as he usually did, and exhaled his own scent into her hair. It was such a comforting thing for both of them that she smiled a little.

"Then, Chrissy made a phone call and she called her dad. Of course. And Ephraim showed up. No, it was really _Chief Black_ that showed up."

Bella's smile faded. "What happened?"

"He reminded me of my promise. Josh gave the baby back to Chrissy and insisted to know what the hell the chief was talking about."

Stomach tightening, Bella leaned back to look into Levi's eyes. "What happened?" she asked again.

He closed his eyes and tightened his lips briefly before a crazy collection of words rolled out of his mouth. "Joshua ignored the rain, stubborn kid, and said he knew something was up and he bet there never was a woman and if there was, she was a whore and that's why I kept her away and he bet she was a real young one, too, because I would have divorced his mom if she'd lived and I stayed this young-looking and – Oh, Bella! I lost it. I stripped down and phased and Ephraim lit into me about that – at least it was dark and raining and no one saw, but _damn it_!" He inhaled raggedly. "I couldn't let him talk like that about you – about us, you know? And then Josh panicked and ran inside and slammed the door, telling me to keep the hell away from his wife and son!"

When he broke, it was a terrible thing for her to see. His wrenching sobs, the still-pulsing need for him to explain himself, even if Joshua wasn't there to listen – tore at Isabella's dead heart. Her whole awareness was focused on the salt of his tears, the racing of his heart, the way his abdominal muscles clenched and unclenched and the tiny sound of tearing fibers in the bedspread as he ripped at the one thing he obviously felt he could rend at in his grief.

The sobs stopped eventually, leaving him on his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling of their home while she tried to soothe him with cool fingertips and her most gentle voice.

He didn't overtly respond before falling into a deep, dark sleep filled with sighs and moans and murmurings that she tried to shush by reminding his somnolent ear that she loved him, so very much.

**[+]**

Levi became a fisherman, working with someone who knew Chief Black, so that his absences were never questioned. He was "working on Tribal Business" and allowed to remain employed and earn money for food and clothing. His smiles did not flash brightly for months after having it out with Joshua. His son's name was not mentioned for weeks.

He spent inordinate amounts of time on solo patrols.

Bella did her best to give him some space. Sometimes, he came to her on his own.

It was the middle of the night and she had been hunting at a distance. She needed bigger prey and had found a bear fattening up as late autumn told it it was time to prepare for winter. Having drained it, she performed her usual routine of carve-and-scatter to feed the carrion birds that had grown accustomed to her in the area. As if they knew her scent brought food, they sometimes lingered overhead in circles even when she wasn't hunting.

Since it was the middle of the night and no one was about – it was cold for human campers and she detected none of her own kind on her route to the Quillayute River – Bella stripped down and dove into the water. Not needing to breathe, she was able to scrub herself with the bottom sand and thus clean her hair and any lingering traces of animal blood and fur from her body. Moonlight filtered to her through the churned-up water, giving her additional light to see by, though her own vision was sufficient to the purpose. Still, even enhanced vampiric sight was not enough for perfect clarity under the circumstances.

The water was disturbed and she froze, digging her toes into the bottom of the riverbed, through hardened soil and rock. As an overt display of strength, it was impressive – she didn't heed it, however. Her mind merely catalogued it as something that would not be seen.

_Thump-thump. Thump-thump. _

Relief flowed over her more tangibly that the water. "Levi!" she breathed, arrowing her body through the surface.

"Bella." His voice came to her, deep and low over the water as he waded in to meet her. "I'm so sorry," he said as he reached for her, pulling her against the planes of his chest, the curl of his embrace.

"Forgiven, even before you asked," she breathed against him.

He kissed her, then, for the first time in what seemed like forever. She did the best she could to melt into him – wishing for that extra bit of pliability that was lost to her. Tasting his breath, relishing the heat of his body, the agility of his tongue as they explored one another's mouths again, feeling their mutual devotion rekindling about them in an almost visible rippling of passion. She was a vampire and this was part of her nature. This craving for physical fulfillment, the needs to satisfy her own body's urges almost made her feel alive.

"Is anyone...?"

"No," he rumbled. "It's just you and me. And I feel –"

"Me, too."

They paused only a moment to arrange their discarded clothing on the bank of the river. On this makeshift bedding, they engaged again in their own form of lovemaking as the moon gave its silent blessing.

**[+]**

She rode him bareback to their cabin before the sun made an appearance. "Not complaining, sweetheart, but what brought this on?" she inquired after he phased and regained the ability to speak to her and started to heat their home.

He took her hairbrush and she took a chair in front of the fire. With his long fingers and heightened senses, he was adept at detangling her still-damp hair. "It's been a hell of a day, hon. I just – I just heard a lot of stuff and saw the news on the boat and got back and you were gone but Quil was here and... Ah, Bella. It'll always hurt, what happened with my son. With – with Joshua. But I can still protect him. He still needs protection. And his life is his own. That – that makes it worth the sacrifice, you know?"

He continued brushing out her hair as it dried. She let him do so in silence, wondering what had happened that day. Finally, when he tossed her hairbrush on the bed across the cabin, she moved with that inhuman immediacy of her kind and turned to face him, the chair in between them, the fire at her back. The shadows under his eyes had faded, finally, though there were new lines etched at the corners of his mouth. They both startled and pleased her. He had not really changed in appearance in the years she had known him, save for the length of his hair. So this reminder of his birthright – his humanity – was rather welcome.

"What happened today?"

He gripped the wooden back of the chair and looked past her, into the flames. "Quil never really came back from Theresa's death, you know." Bella nodded; Theresa's passing had been sad, but the woman had been in so much pain it was a relief, too. "He just sort of rolled over, Quil said. Rolled over and went to sleep and stopped breathing."

Bella tentatively touched Levi's fingers. "I'm sorry."

He nodded. "Wait, there's more. That was the latest thing to happen today. Earlier, I was on the boat with the guys, you know, working on the nets? And we had the radio on and –" He grimaced and met her eyes. "President Kennedy was shot in Dallas."

She gasped. "He was assassinated?"

"Yeah."

"Wow." The news did not grip her as she would find it had stunned the nation, but Bella did pause for a moment out of respect. Levi had seen Presidents come and go as well, she knew, but he still seemed shocked and silenced by this. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, letting go of the chair and reaching for her hand to tug her lightly around to himself. "It just made me think, you know? Kennedy had a wife and kids and now they don't have him anymore. Quil's dad died...so he doesn't have him, anymore. But me – I've been mad and everything and I just miss my son so much –" He bit off the words but she could see them as if they'd been written behind the shining gray surfaces of his eyes. "I miss him, but I've still got him, you know? He's still alive and so's my grandson and – and I've got you, Isabella Uley." He kissed her, long and lingering. "I've got you and I really have so much more than those other people."

Bella was overwhelmed by the hoarse emotion in his voice, in the tightness of control he had wrapped around himself as he both apologized and explained. She kissed his chest. "We've got each other," she reminded him.

After several minutes of silently standing together, her thoughts flashing to the images she had in her mind of President Kennedy and his lovely wife and how horrible it must be for her, Bella sighed and was thinking very seriously of coaxing Levi back to bed and reminding him again just how lucky they both were.

He stopped her with a crooked smile and his old, playful voice. "And! I ran into a Geoffrey Swan today, too... He said we were related?"

"Oh!" Bella said, embarrassed. "I never told you because – well, everything with, with Joshua had just happened and –"

Levi cupped her face in his heated hands. "I know. So tell me now. Apparently, according to this Swan fella, you're part Makah?"

Smiling with some chagrin, Bella did indeed pull her man back to their bed to tell him the strange tale of her apparent genealogy. Levi only relaxed into sleep when they had finished discussing every single thing that had happened over the past few months.

To Bella, it was like coming home.

* * *

**In the nineteen sixties, men didn't get depressed in the unwritten laws of society. Certainly not working-class men like Levi Uley. So he really didn't have any appropriate tools to help him work through this episode of his life. :-(**

**In chapter twelve, there'll be some good news and some bad news… And sex. **

**Levi will howl. Remember though, it's still rated T. :D**

**Last Minute Addition:**

**THANK YOU! WKY won TWO AWARDS at the Twilight Gem Awards, Pearl Round: Best All-Wolf (Non-Jake) and Best WIP. Thank you so much for your support of this story!**


	12. Transitions

A/N: Thanks so much for the **love** on the last chapter! :) Now, if you review anonymously, I cannot reciprocate with a teaser! So please, if you want one, make yourself available, okay? Thanks!

Some drug use by random hikers is shown in this chapter. Levi finds it more amusing than not, however...

* * *

**Chapter Twelve: Transitions**

**[+]1966[+]**

"No, really, you have to hear this one," Levi whispered in Isabella's ear. "It'll be fun, come on." Latent laughter lined his voice and he knew it and knew that she would know it, but still, he tried to keep it back while nuzzling behind her ear. "Please?"

His wife giggled. "You're not playing fair. We've heard so many of these stories already..."

"I really think these kids are different, and no one will ever believe 'em, even if they happen to see us. I'll even phase first."

"Levi!" She turned in his arms and glared playfully up at him. "What is it?"

"These hikers are higher than kites, hon. You _have_ to hear what they're saying. It's better than a movie."

"Hmph. Gregory Peck's latest is out, you know. With Sophia Loren. Most intriguing movie of 1966. Well, okay, the posters say, 'Ultra mod, ultra mad, ultra mystery.'"

"Sophia, huh?" Levi pretended to consider this, dismissing all the 'ultra' hype. "She's gorgeous..."

Bella snorted and slapped him lightly. "Fine, we'll go listen to your hikers."

Calling on the unseen power in the air, he felt it flicker like flames down his spine. Thirty years, he had been doing this. Thirty years. Then he was a wolf, towering over his love who looked up at him with warm golden eyes and furrowed her fingers through the fur on his ruff.

"Cannot believe we're doing this," she told him, her lips tilting in a wry smile. He nudged her shoulder and she laughed. "Sure, sure. Okay, fine. Let's go."

He knelt and looked at her hopefully, even going so far as to wag his tail. The good humor that suffused his whole body was welcome. Maybe something those kids were smoking got to him, too? But his body's heat should have burned it up by now.

With a light chuff at Bella, he took off at a jog. They followed the noxious aerial trails of whatever the hikers were smoking.

"Whoa. Did ya hear that?"

Levi didn't stop even though Bella slapped him lightly on the flank as they circled the young men and women who were camping in the forest. He recognized the small rolled herb as pot, which he'd seen and smelled before.

"Dude. You're stoned. You'd think you heard something if it was your own toe tappin'."

There was some general laughter and one of the young men nudged a girl whom Levi didn't recognize. She had the look of one of the kids from the Rez, though. Long hair in two braids and wearing a top and jeans, she inhaled from the rolled marijuana joint and passed it along. "What?" she breathed after a moment.

"Maybe we're surrounded by tribal spirits, eh Clearwater?"

Levi stiffened, his fur bristling. Bella's touch – now warmed by his proximity – soothed him, but only a little. "Your brother's getting married to one of the Blacks, right? So you should know all about the legends."

The girl – Levi had heard of her, as she was the same age as his son – was Suzanne. She pursed her lips and slowly reclined to stare up at the leaves fluttering against the cloudy darkness of the sky overhead. "Gimme another toke and I'll tell you."

Accordingly, she was handed one and Bella watched with apparent boredom. She tugged on Levi's fur and he settled onto the ground. Bella joined him, half-draped over his neck. "Why are we here again?" she whispered.

Nudging her back, he just thought, _Listen! _

"All right," Suzanne said in a languid tone, "so we have legends about myths, about stuff you read about in books or see on Halloween."

"Badass," muttered the boy who had said he'd heard something as he took another puff – a toke, Levi learned – "and so that's what I heard? A myth? I don't think so."

"There are vampires," the girl said. "Like, out there. And you've heard about werewolves? Well, we've got legends about them, too."

Levi snorted. Bella froze. These were drug-addled minds in front of them. There wasn't any danger.

"So what I've heard," Suzanne continued, wordlessly asking for another puff and taking one, "is that we have guardians on the Reservation, watching over my people. Sometimes, they look like a pale woman and darker man. Sometimes, they're a wolf and his lover."

"Sick!"

"Groovy, baby."

"Cool..."

Suzanne smiled dreamily. "Yeah. So, are we gonna, like, crash here? I'm real tired."

"I've got the munchies," another camper declared with a lunge to a large grocery bag.

And no more was said about the local legends.

**[+]1971[+]**

"Ephraim," Levi whispered into the window of his old friend's house.

The light rain masked most of the sounds, but Ephraim had become a light sleeper as he aged. Levi hunkered down next to the window with its weather screen and light metal frame. Soon, he heard Chief Black's mattress move with creaks and the sounds of old springs. Then, two steps on the wooden floor.

"Shh, shh... It's okay. Just an old friend," Levi murmured.

Annie's raspy voice came next. "All right. Tell him hi for me." Then, she made a little sound as she evidently remembered. "Hello, Levi."

Outside, Levi grinned. Annie was terrific.

"Come on around to the front, it's okay," Ephraim muttered, making other sounds like, "gah," and "ooohhh" and hissing when he thumped a toe or something. Levi slunk around the house, trying to keep a low profile until he reached the unlit stoop.

"Hey, Eph."

"Hey. Glad you could make it." Ephraim stepped back and Levi slid into the house after scraping the mud off the bottom of his sneakers on the mat in front of the door. "Sorry I couldn't talk, earlier."

"No, no," Levi said as Ephraim shuffled off a bit to get him a towel. "It's fine. I know how it is." He caught a brown patterned towel and the odd look his old friend sent him at the same moment. "What?"

"Have a seat, Levi."

Tension bunched Levi's muscles. "What is it?"

"When you called me, I was just walkin' in the door." Levi studied Ephraim closely, noting the white streaks in his hair and the slight limp he'd acquired over the past couple of years. The man was sixty years old. Interestingly, the lines on his face were mostly smile-lines. "Have a seat," he said again, smiling a little sadly. "Don't want you going all wolf on me."

The small living room was filled with what Bella called "knick knacks." Gifts given to the chief and his wife over the years. Animal carvings, including wolves – as the tribe's totem – small handwoven mats, glassware, spoons, too, and shot glasses. A crocheted circle thing was on the arm of the chair Levi lowered himself into as Ephraim turned on a tabletop light. The illumination was dim, but it was enough for his old friend's human eyes to see by. To calm the gnawing worry in his gut, Levi inhaled slowly, taking in the scents of his friends, of ashes in the hearth, of the faint overhanging smells of pork chops and mashed potatoes.

Finally, he asked. "What is it?"

"There was an accident in town. In Forks. One of ours was involved, so I was called in to mediate in case of a dispute." Levi nodded, his jaw locked against any further questions to which he sensed he would not want answers. "There was a drunk who stole a truck. He blew through a crosswalk and clipped a man and injured him and his family."

"Who?" Levi choked out.

"The drunk guy wasn't even a local. An out-of-towner related to the Newtons. He claimed that the victim jumped in front of the truck."

"Who?" Levi asked again, more firmly this time. He knew, but he couldn't make himself say it out loud.

Ephraim didn't flinch. "Josh, Chrissy and JJ. Joshua...Joshua didn't make it, Levi," he finished softly, sympathy in every nuance of his voice.

Levi felt helplessness liquidating his bones at the same time as fury blew through him with a pain he knew would lead to phasing unless he got himself under control. Only decades of experience came to his aid as he leapt from the chair. "Where are Chrissy and my grandson? I have to see them!"

Ephraim rose then, his hands in front of him, palms up. "Hey, hey, old friend. You can't, remember? What do you say? That you're his – Joshua's – dad? He looks older than you, Levi. I know it's – it's like a nightmare. I know, but we have to keep the secret."

Brought up short, Levi's heart cracked in despair. "Oh, no..." was all he could manage to say. "I gotta stop, Eph. Show me how to stop."

Before Ephraim could say anything though, Levi was out the front door, his clothing in shreds. The chief hoped and prayed that no one was up at 2:32 in the morning to witness the horse-sized wolf that ran crazily from the house to the nearest line of trees.

For himself, Levi pounded to the cabin. _Gotta stop this. I can't live like this. I love her, I love her, I love her, but I can't. I have to be with my family_.

He howled his heartbreak to the skies and Bella met him, as he knew she would, before he reached home. She came, concern crinkling her pale forehead, arms outstretched. "Oh, Levi, sweetheart. Oh, no. What happened?"

He knelt in front of her, burying his lupine nose in her hair and panting heavily against her sturdy shoulder. _ Bella, Bella. _Her off-putting scent had long become part of his world, though her kind and his were mortal enemies. He had known her for twenty seven years as a werewolf. He let his senses drink her in, feeling her warm up as she embraced him, her meaningless murmurings meaning she loved him as they knelt in the light rain as wolf and woman.

It would be the last time.

**[+]1974[+]**

Swimming...he was swimming in his sleep. The tide was rough but he was fighting it. There was a mermaid with him, sobbing, sobbing even as she tried to get him to stop fighting. She was beautiful and he ceased his struggle to stare at her. Mahogany hair, eyes like gold bullion, curves that made his muscles tighten...

"Levi, oh sweetheart," she cried, her voice liquid and melodic.

The mermaid tugged him out of the water and Levi drew in a deep lungful of air that made him cough. And cough. And _cough_.

And there she was. His mermaid. But she wasn't a mermaid at all. "Bella," he rasped, his throat burning. Her skin was cool to his body, and she was wrapped all around him, holding him as his body shook. _What the hell?_

"What the hell?" he asked her, confusion clogging his mental faculties.

"You're sick, sweetheart."

"Imposs –" he began. Then, he stopped. And swallowed against the sandpaper in his throat. Meeting her sad gaze, he felt frozen for a moment. "I've done it, haven't I?"

Her eyes swam with venomed tears she could not shed and he remembered when he had told her of his decision.

. . .

_They were in front of the hearth, the blaze almost too much for the tiny cabin. "I love you," he said firmly, his hands enveloping hers as he stared into her eyes. "I have loved you for so long, Isabella Uley."_

"_But you're leaving, aren't you?" she whispered, her tremble visible as he watched. "I – I don't blame you."_

_He shook his head. "Not leaving, not really. I'm just gonna – gonna let it go, hon. Let the wolf go. I'll need to do what I can for my grandson, you know?"_

"_I know." She inhaled and her breath caught on its way in. "I always knew this would happen someday."_

_He folded her into his embrace and they swayed in front of the fire, his heart breaking at the death of his son and his choice to live out the rest of his own years as a human._

. . .

Bella wrapped a blanket more securely around him and cradled him against her breast. "Yeah, I really think you've done it, sweetheart." He heard the smile in her voice when she added, "You actually smell really good."

The laughter was unexpected and he relished it as it unfurled from his congested chest. Turning his head, he pressed his nose to her throat. Inhaled. "You too. Wow, honey. I mean, I could just lick you."

In a flash that his human eyes didn't register, she was in front of his blanket-swaddled body. Wearing a red nylon nightgown, she studied him with her lips parted. "You could..."

In spite of his unexpected sickness – a cold was probably all it was – Levi's body tightened in response to the darkening of her eyes. This was not the blackness of hunger, but the darkening of desire and it always turned him on. "I could... If I'm human now... _All the way_ human..."

Briefly, his mind jumped to why he was human, why he wanted to be able to age and change and grow old. His wish to be able to be there for his grandson and daughter-in-law. Outliving his son had broken him and, though his heart was healing even now, he knew he didn't want to outlive everyone. Not even for Bella, the love of his extended life.

Bella, who was leaning toward him, her fragrance seductive and alluring. "You _smell_ human...all the _way_ human..."

His mind thrust firmly into the present, Levi emerged from the blankets, ignored the rough burning in his throat and gave himself over to the woman he considered his wife. It would be their "first time" together. The idea made him laugh a little. "Never heard of anyone taking this long to consummate a marriage," he murmured against her throat.

"I'll make it worth your while," she promised on a purr.

She did.

**[+]1979[+]**

"Get the hell outta my way, Old Man," the teenager shouted. "I'm not gonna listen to these damn stories one more time!"

Levi grimaced and stood to block his grandson's way as he tried to get to the driver's side of the car. It was an old Buick sedan and it rocked a little as Joshua, Junior, shoved his grandfather out of the way. He was a tall boy, if gangly, and had a temper to match. His voice carried here on the cliff and several heads turned to see the confrontation that was playing itself out as the sun sank below the Pacific horizon.

"Hey, hey," Quil – Old Quil, now – called out, ambling down with some agility over the salt-crusted corpses of trees. "C'mon there, Joshua. It's part of our history."

"I don't give a damn about our history. What the hell good did it do us?" He glared into Levi's eyes. "You abandoned my father," he spat. "For what?"

Levi had heard it before, unfortunately. He didn't dare – still – bring Bella to introduce her to his grandson. Chrissy had remarried and that didn't help Josh Jr.'s temper. "I didn't abandon him, Joshua. He was an adult when I left, and I went with his blessing."

"For a whore," the teen shot back, his teeth bared in a feral manner.

Levi checked the sudden spike of fury to his system. He was worried that – somehow – Joshua might have been exposed to a vampire (not Bella – he knew that for certain) and was exhibiting signs of an impending first phasing. Also, Levi was afraid that, though he'd been human now for a few years, his own fury might inspire his body to remember patterns it had lived by for decades and he might phase himself.

So he clenched every muscle in his body tight to enforce personal control. "She's not a whore; she's my wife."

"Then go back to her, old man. My dad sent you away, remember. Get out of here." He eyed Old Quil. "Can't you make him leave?"

Ephraim reached them, coughing a bit in the cooling air. "Enough. Go on, Josh. I'm not going to make you stay. No one is," he added with a look at Levi.

A triumphant smirk twitched on the young man's face. "Thanks, Chief." Maintaining eye contact with Levi, Joshua got into the car, started it and pulled away.

"I'll take you back," Ephraim offered.

Quil shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "He's gonna be a handful."

"Ya think?" The question slid from Ephraim and Levi simultaneously and, suddenly, all three were remembering being young together. Running as men and wolves and Levi could see the pride in their straightened spines and the happier memories that danced behind their eyes.

"How is _she_, with all this?" Old Quil asked. "She hasn't tried to drain you dry yet, eh?"

"She's part Makah, you know," Levi muttered, kicking at a seashell. "She's almost a local girl."

Quil opened his mouth like a drowning fish. Closed it again. Ephraim nudged Levi and then all three of them burst into laughter. Then, Quil shrugged. "So, you know, do you 'do the deed?'" he asked with his fingers making quotation marks in the air.

"What are you, _twelve_?" Levi asked, laughing and incredulous. Yes, of course they had sex – great sex, and she had the patience to coax stamina out of his rapidly-aging body. But, there were limits. "Hey, I don't have to let you in my head anymore. I'm pleading the fifth."

Ephraim nudged Quil then. "Let's just be glad we don't have to watch his old ass getting it on with a Cold One, huh?"

Their voices were whispers that carried no farther than their ears, but the humor and shared experiences moved between them vibrantly, needing no further communication than they had shared.

**[+]1984[+]**

"I wish I could be at Josh Jr.'s wedding," Bella murmured into his collarbone. Levi blinked a few times. It seemed that, like aging men everywhere, he was getting a little shorter with the passing of the years. His Bella certainly hadn't grown taller! "I'd like to see everyone."

He drew back and studied her, cupping her ageless face in his increasingly wrinkled hands. "I'm so sorry," he said, realization swamping him as it had tended to do, lately. "You must be so lonely, stuck here with me."

Her smile was slow and heartbreaking in its emotional spectrum. Acknowledgment, loneliness, love – so much love – acceptance and, he knew, incipient loss. "Sure, sure. Sometimes. But I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." She traced the lines in his face, around his eyes. "We've known each other for forty years, Levi. It's as long as a lot of people ever have." She grinned. "And we have had some great years."

A sudden pain sliced through his torso. "You talk like you're going away."

"I'm not. I'm here with you and I'll always be with you." She pressed her palm to his chest. "As long as your heart is beating."

It thudded unevenly and he grimaced, determined to ignore the disruption in his chest. "Sometimes, I feel like I've been so selfish." He remembered when Annie had died in her sleep the year before and how it had torn Ephraim. "I remember how it was, for me, when my imprint died."

"Hush. Don't think of it today. It's a wedding you're going to, not a funeral."

He snorted and kissed her forehead. She moved away as he shrugged on a dress shirt and buttoned it. "He got his girlfriend pregnant and he's doing the honorable thing by marrying her. Most honorable thing that boy has done in his whole life."

Her laugh was light. "Maybe he'll turn out all right after all." She tied his tie and he smiled into her eyes. Sometimes, he was just overwhelmed by his feelings for her, even after all these years. "What?" she wondered.

"I love you."

Skimming her lips over the underside of his jaw she said, "I love you, too. Sorry I was whiny."

"What'll you do while I'm gone."

"I thought I'd change and go on patrol."

Startled, he met her eyes in the mirror over the chest of drawers. "Huh? It's daylight, hon."

"I'll be careful. And besides, the chief's grandson is getting married today. Shouldn't have too many people in the woods."

"But it's summer."

"I'll wear long sleeves. Go on. I'll stay in the shadows."

After a long and intense kiss goodbye, Levi left in the increasingly ancient Buick. He felt tired, really. So tired. He drew in a long, slow breath and drove slowly into the village. His grandson was getting married. A great-grandchild was on the way. He'd see his old friends, miss some that would never be there again.

And his wife was forever excluded from this part of life. He hated that that was necessary, loved that she understood and loved him anyway. Wished...always...that things were a little different.

He arrived at the Tribal Hall just as Quil and Laura did. Quil was Old Quil since his son was Young Quil. Quil was only fifty-five, though, and to Levi seemed pretty young. You're just feeling your age, Old Man, he admonished himself, drawing in another long, slow breath.

"Hey, Levi! How are you?"

They shook hands, Quil surprisingly asked after Bella and the two of them went in to find Ephraim, acting in his role as Tribal Chief today, but in a suit since their mutual grandson didn't hold with traditions.

Though there were several people obviously seeking a moment with Chief Black, Ephraim corralled Levi off to one side of the hall while other guests arrived and got settled in. "You doin' all right, Levi? You look kind of tired."

Recalling the emotional moments and physical discomforts of his day so far, Levi shrugged them off. "Just been a long day. And I know our grandson isn't going to be happy to see me."

"Just wait until you meet his bride," Eph assured him with a shadow of a smile. Memories haunted the chief's eyes, but only briefly. "She's a nice girl." Then, his expression shifted. "So. You're unofficially on the Council, right?"

Wary, Levi lifted a brow. "Right...?"

"I'm bringing Thomas into the Council Meetings starting with our next one, to get him ready to take over. He's going to want to meet Bella. Will that be all right?"

"He's too old to phase, now."

"Yeah. So. Before that happens, I want to talk to her. With you and Quil. Officially."

Surprise flared within Levi as he studied his oldest friend. "Sure. Um, you want to come up or ...?"

"Yeah. The next Council meeting is supposed to happen in two weeks, so sometime in the next week, I think."

"All right." Concern for the woman he loved made him ask, "Is she – is everything still on, with her? She's not being sent away is she?" He didn't think so, but he wasn't in the village and didn't have his finger on the pulse of the nation, as he had heard was a popular phrase on the TV news.

Ephraim clapped him solidly on the shoulder. "Everything's fine. She's still a Protector. We just wanted to renew old promises before the changing of the guard and all that."

They agreed on a time and then turned. Levi felt as if he were changing clothes, or maybe even phasing again as he shifted from speaking about werewolves and vampires to grandchildren and weddings. His chest felt tight with tension and he struggled, all during the ceremony, to just keep drawing air into his body.

He didn't even notice the point when he stopped.

* * *

**A/N: Just going to remind you that this story is not over yet…**

******I am starting a new column, Quill's Corner, at MyVampFiction Dot Com so look for me there later this week!**  


**And, in spite of my apparent need to cause havoc with your hearts and minds, I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas, if you so celebrate. Even if you don't, have a wonderful week! :) **


	13. Mourning

A/N: I know I was horrible about the ending of the last chapter. I remind you again that this is **not** the end of the story. It's different, but the story's progression has not wavered. And there are 21 chapters to it.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen: Mourning**

Dappled sunlight tried to find her, but Bella did not get caught. It was a challenge, admittedly, to walk under a sunlit sky and not sparkle in front of humans. The fluttering of each leaf in a light, summer, salt-scented breeze entertained her. A squirrel chittered at her, acorn in its paws, as if daring her to steal the building hoard of food he was gathering against the coming winter.

Larger animals made themselves scarce. They knew a predator when they caught wind of one.

Hearing no human heartbeats, Bella took off at her top speed through the forest, making for the eastern border. She did not anticipate any red-eyed vampires to appear on such a sunny day, but then those that hunted humans did not generally care if they were seen by their prey.

She heard the shriek before she saw its cause, far through the trees. She focused and then she ran past the border and into the greater National Forest. There was a heart beating desperately and the scent of vampire, stretching out, taunting her. _I'll never make it! And even if I do – it's already too late!_

. . .

"_So what do I do if I'm too late?" she had asked Chief Black on his last patrol. "What if I find a Cold One and interrupt his feeding?"_

"_He – or she – must be destroyed so that they cannot...hunt...humans ever again," the chief stated implacably. "There is no other option for a Protector."_

_With a nod, she accepted the need to serve as executioner. Then, tentatively, she asked, "What if they only began to feed? Do I kill their victim or let them be changed?"_

_Ephraim had met her eyes with a deadly purpose. "You must kill them. We cannot take the chance with new Cold Ones anywhere near the Reservation."_

"_But, I could take responsibility for them –"_

"_No."_

_Resigned, knowing that Ephraim Black was acting in the best interests of his people, she conceded. "All right."_

. . .

"I don't share," the feeding vampire called thickly over his shoulder. He licked a dribble of dark red fluid from the corner of his mouth before turning back to his _meal_.

"You're done now, anyway," Bella said in answer. She could barely bring herself to look at the middle-aged woman in the vampire's arms. "Her heart stopped beating." Tossing her shield up just in case this nomadic vampire had a special mental ability, she also reviewed the lessons Levi had given her over the years in how to fight vampires like a werewolf.

"Too bad she was alone," the other said, looking about the area before tossing the woman away from him. She landed six and one-half yards distant and he brushed off his hands as if he were a human woman who had finished gardening. Eyeing her up and down, he smirked. "Too bad _I'm_ alone." He flashed to stand immediately in front of her. "_You_ alone? We could – hey, what's up with your eyes? Did you get injured?" Puzzlement wrinkled his forehead.

"No. I don't share your diet. And I have to tell you –" She moved quickly, doing her best not to "telegraph" her attacking strike at his head.

He was amazingly fast and ducked, grabbing her around her waist and lifting her off the ground so that she lost a great deal of her ability to fight and project force. Fear exploded within her. Teeth. Levi reminded her they were the wolves' weapons and she had them, too. With a sharp angling of her body, she locked her jaw on the other's ribs and chomped down hard. Like a _werewolf_.

He roared, but only moved his hands in apparent preparation to either throw her or flip her over. But then, his fingers skimmed her gouged-out flesh and he paused. "Huh?"

The loss of focus was brief, but enough for her to press herself from him, ripping a chunk of his flesh out of his body. Like the werewolf she learned from, Bella went back to leap on him and pin him down, keeping Levi in her mind's eye as she rapidly removed the stranger's limbs.

And then – when he was oozing venom on the forest floor, the sunlight breaking through the clouds and treetops to make them both shine like glittery toys – she stopped to make sure they were still alone.

Spitting the last of his venom from her mouth, she slipped the old Zippo lighter from the front pocket of her jeans. Once, she had forgotten the lighter and Levi had had to stand guard for long enough for her to run to the cabin and find it. She never forgot it on patrol again. She set the strange vampire's head on fire first – torture was anathema to her and, though Levi had left the head for last on at least one vampire enemy, she would never do so – before gathering the limbs she had thrown from his body and setting them alight, adding them to the smallish blaze like branches to a bonfire.

Then, she had to decide what to do about the victim of the attack. Leave her here, with all the wounds that would cause the local law enforcement to wonder what was going on? Bella's own distant cousin, Charlie Swan, was going to the police academy she had heard through a call with Helen. It'd be awful for him to have to deal with something like this. Should she bury the body in scattered pieces, leaving her family without an understanding of what had happened?

"This is awful," she mused aloud. No good choice presenting itself, she decided to further disfigure the corpse. If Levi were still phasing, he would have clawed the woman, but... Bella did the best she could.

After her patrol, it was getting late and she ran to a stream where she could rinse before running home. Plenty of shampoo and soap would feel wonderful... Maybe Levi would wash her hair. He was so commanding when he did. Even the memory made her insides quiver in anticipation and gave extra speed to her feet so that she hoped to goodness no humans were out and about just now – they'd see a white blur in the forest and swear it was haunted!

The rumors did persist, after all.

She heard the strong beat of a heart as she neared their cabin – but it wasn't the heartbeat that had echoed in her silent chest for so many years. Stumbling as her abrupt slow-down made her a little clumsy, Isabella jogged to the edge of the clearing where the cabin had been for at least two hundred years, being tended to off and on in that time. There was a tall man, but not her man. She sniffed. "Quil," she whispered before a grimace tightened her lips. They never had become more than cordial adversaries. He had ceased phasing long ago as well, so he didn't hear her soft identification. She cleared her throat so as not to frighten him and came slowly onto the beaten earth near where Quil had parked his car. A Datsun coupe, she noted absently. Dusty and blue.

"Quil Ateara," she called as he turned. He looked to be in fine form for a man in his fifties.

"Isabella Uley," he returned with a respectful lilt to his deep voice. She stilled as her thoughts flew over his possible reasons for being at their place. "Were you swimming?"

"Cleaned up from patrol," she said absently, her senses extending to find out what other scents he had with him. Something stale but clean. The nose-crinkling scent of fear, but not fresh. That was a bit stale as well. "Where's Levi? What happened? You smell like there was a problem, Quil." He was not going to be able to cover anything up in front of her!

Quil glanced down at his shined dress shoes for a moment before meeting her eyes. "Levi's in the hospital, Bella. Ephraim's with him," he added in a rush as Bella jumped – literally leapt through the air to the cabin to get her purse. In the hospital in Forks. In the hospital? What was it? He'd been breathing heavily, but he was doing that sometimes, and he'd rubbed his chest distractedly on his way out – but his heart had been beating...

Of course.

"Heart attack." She didn't make it a question as her mouth fell open and stayed there. She was calculating the straight-line run time to Forks General. "I'll get right over there. He needs me."

She didn't see Quil move, so focused was she on the route to take to avoid humans. Thinking what she would need. Cash, of course, to pay for his care. And a change of clothes...

"No, Bella. You can't. You know that."

Fury flew from her as she flashed to stand half an inch from his chest. To his credit, he only barely flinched as she tried to stare him down. "I remember when you were still in your teens," she spat, venom pooling under her tongue. "You can't tell me when I can and cannot see my husband!" Was she provoking him deliberately? Part of herself was acting on instinct. A vampire's instinct to protect a mate. Even if Levi was not her _mate_ as vampires understood that relationship, he was her love, her best friend, her only real companion, and all that she desired. And Quil was trying to keep her from him._ If I hit him there, right there, I'll knock him unconscious. I can do that. I can do that with a clear conscience. I can_.

"Josh and Sharon are there too," Quil said quietly. "He's still in his twenties. My dad phased for the first time in his thirties. We can't take the chance."

Desperation built up inside of her with each of Quil's words and, when she accepted that he was right, she knelt on the ground and howled as if she was a werewolf herself.

**[+]**

They sat holding vigil for her husband as soon as they brought him home from the hospital.

"We told them he lived on the Rez and promised to take him home with us," Ephraim told her in hushed tones three days after his heart attack. "Thanks for sending the money," he added as Bella smoothed a shock of white hair from Levi's pale forehead. "Helped a lot. We could have figured it out, but..."

Bella waved off his explanation, keeping her eyes on Levi's face and chest. He breathed in and out, his dry lips parted. His cheekbones stood out as he rested. "We've got it, he needed it. Now what?"

"It's not good, Bella." Quil knelt at the bedside and took one of Levi's lined palms in his hand. "The doctor was nice and all, but he reminded us that heart disease is the leading cause of death among Native Americans right now. So.."

She choked on a sob. "Ohhh... I knew it could happen. I did. I just...just..."

Two warm hands cupped her shoulders. "We know. Look, if you need anything at all, one of us will come up every day."

She nodded and the two men stepped noisily out of the cabin, got in Ephraim's sedan, and drove slowly away through the forest, the tires grinding into the soil with a loud intrusion until it was no more. Then, there was just...

Breathing. Rasping and shallow. Outside, a squirrel made a mad dash across the roof. She could hear it chittering to a mate who was in the trees beyond the beaten earth yard. In the distance, the ocean caressed the shore like a persistent lover, over and over, with rough fingers. She and Levi had spent countless hours just laying in bed, fingers twined, listening. Lying back on the pillow, she tried to recapture that as the sun started settling in for the night. Her fingers once again with her husband's...three days without him had made her grateful for even this tenuous contact with him.

She felt it when he curled his hand slightly, his fingers sliding purposefully over hers. His heart thudded arrhythmically and he coughed lightly.

She kept her hand in his but otherwise moved so that she could look him directly in the eye. "Levi?" His eyelids fluttered open, the gray irises seeming flat as they were revealed. "Sweetheart?"

He coughed again. "Bella? Am I dead?"

Her petrified heart seemed to clench within her breast as she bent to place a kiss to his cheek. It felt like paper that had been left in the sun for a moment – the contrast so different to his youthful, vibrant heat that she cringed inwardly even while her lips remained on his skin. "No, you're not dead," she murmured against him. "Still here, with me." Pulling back, she placed a hand oh-so-gently over his heart. "Feel this? It's still beating."

"Where were you? I asked and asked, but..." He would have been embarrassed, in a more hearty state, about the tears that came to his eyes, she knew. She didn't reference them by look, word or touch. "I couldn't breathe," he whispered. "And then I woke up and you weren't there. And the doctors didn't know you..."

"They can't know me, Levi, remember? I tried to get to you, but I wasn't allowed." Oh, what had happened to her husband? He had been aging, yes, but it had seemed an entirely surface thing for so long. She had been spared – they both had been. "Ephraim and Quil brought you back to me as soon as they could. Anything I can do for you?"

"Talk to me." Life came back to his eyes, the tracks of his tears drying on his cheeks. "Tell me something you've never told me before."

"Sweetheart..."

"Isabella..." He breathed in and out, in some pain but his eyes sharpened now and it was once again her werewolf who was meeting her gaze. "I know...I'm dying. I know. Give me something new before I go."

"I can't imagine what you _don't_ know about me, Levi," she said, her mind racing over the myriad conversations they had had over the past forty years.

He was quiet, breathing with that same shallow rasping sound. He smelled like Levi, but Levi buried under hospital smells and some kind of soap that was not his usual. He smelled like medications and latex bandaging. "How'd you get here? I know about what they did to you, but how'd you get away?"

Her flawless memory skated over the episode that led to her freedom from Volterra and she winced visibly. Long fingers tightened around her hand. She studied them, let her eyes caress his once-powerful arm and followed the lines of his body to his eyes. "Are you sure?"

He smiled a little, but his eyes still twinkled. "Yep. C'mon, Cold One. Tell me how you did it."

The change in his mood sealed the deal for her. If the idea of hearing these old, old stories made him smile – however dark their subject matter – she'd tell him. "I love you," she whispered impulsively, leaning down to lay her head on his chest, but bearing most of its weight herself. "Can you hold me? I need you to hold me."

Arms with all the power of old fabric slowly, slowly encircled her. "You're goin' easy on me," he said at length.

"Is that all right?" The man had his pride.

"Yeah. So tell me, Isabella Uley."

With a sigh, she did.

**[+] 1910 [+]**

Corin approached her, his dark red hair combed haphazardly. His gift was entirely mental, so she knew all about it; Aro had made sure. He had the gift of enchantment. It worked entirely on the mind. Beyond the usual vampire persuasive attributes, Corin's gift charmed someone else immediately. He merely had to think about subduing them with a smile and they were his to command. This had been useful in battle, he had boasted a few years back.

"I just smile and they stop long enough to let me kill them." He had adopted a pose of false modesty. "It's not like I had to learn to fight like Felix." Then he sighed with apparent sincerity. "Of course, I'm not one of the Elite, either. Lord Aro has me on guard duty rotation."

Desperate, Bella had begun to cultivate him a few months after her public humiliation and mutilation had ceased to be the topic of feeding-room gossip. Meeting in the library, walking along courtyard walls, they even kissed and caressed one another. Bella did everything in her power to "enchant" the enchanter. She waited until he was on guard duty, late in the year 1910.

She wore her most revealing gown, brushed her hair so that it fell in a perfect curtain that shifted tantalizingly about her torso. Corin was glad to see her on duty, since he felt being there was beneath him anyway, and one thing led to another...

Soon, he was beheaded and she dismembered him in stealthy speed. Then, before his relief – relief from boredom more than anything else – came, she packed him up and left Volterra with his body concealed under a voluminous cloak. Fortunately, Corin hadn't been a very large fellow and she managed the unwieldy burden without incident.

In a little over a year, she managed to get on board the Titanic – touted as the most glorious and safest ship on the seas.

**[+] 1984 [+]**

"The Titanic..." Levi said on half a breathless laugh. "Wait, you told me this, a long time ago. I just didn't get it and didn't really think about it since then."

Bella stared up at him, incredulous. "Did you catch the part where I seduced and murdered someone?"

His arms tightened about her and he seemed to try to draw her up. She helped so that she was holding her weight off of him but still resting lightly over his weakened body. He compressed his lips for a moment. "I did, but I've seen what they did to you, hon. And besides..." he said slowly, his white brows rising into his forehead. "He was a Cold One."

A slight chill shivered down her spine. Though they had lived and loved and been with one another as wary allies as well as husband and wife, they were still each members of people – species – that were mortal enemies. When he was still phasing, they had overcome their scent-aversion through long months and years of familiarity. But there was still the awareness that they were an anomaly. They were not supposed to be a couple.

Their people were enemies. So much more so than Romeo and Juliet.

"He was. I wonder if they ever found the pieces. I burned Corin's head when I had run far enough away..."

Slowly, laboriously, Levi reached up to caress her cheek. His fingertips were cool and dry. "I think you were brave. It must have been hard for you – knowing you didn't even want to hurt the Cold Ones who came here – to have to kill someone to get away."

She felt guilt for Corin's death, even all these years later. "It was. But you said you wanted something new..."

"I love you," he whispered, his hand dropping with a muted _thud_ on his chest.

Lowering herself lightly to him, she kissed his forehead as his eyes slid shut. "I love you, too."

**[+**]

Two days later, Quil and Ephraim arrived. Bella had not been hunting in almost a week and her eyes were dark as she checked her appearance in the mirror. Every moment Levi was awake, she was there with him. Reading to him, feeding him what little nourishment his body required, seeing to all of his physical needs. The arrival of the others was both a relief and an intrusion in the last days she knew she would spend with the man she considered her husband, if not her mate.

Since he was sleeping, she opened the door and stepped out to greet their visitors. "He's asleep," she said without preamble as they emerged from the car.

"We can talk out here," Chief Black offered, leaning against the side panel. He smiled up at the sky. "No rain."

Quil smiled at his chief and then at her. "Levi told us you were Makah? Well, part?"

_That_ explained his new cordiality, Bella thought. "It seems so." She looked from one man to the other, wondering if they planned on waiting until Levi awakened before stating their business. _This is my cabin. It has been for forty years. My home_. Taking a breath to draw in the fresh scents of pine and sea salt, she asked them what they wanted.

"We actually had planned to talk to you before," Ephraim told her. "About the treaty and so forth."

"Oh?" Worry coursed through her. "Quil can tell you I was on patrol when – when," _when Levi almost died_, "Joshua got married." _I didn't save her, but that one will never feed off another human._ "I just haven't...since..."

Ephraim held up a hand. "Of course. We're just wanting you to know that there's going to be a change in the Council and my son, Thomas, will be coming up to see you. And we wanted to, uh, renew things with you." Ephraim's near-black eyes bored into her. "Did you plan on...making any changes...soon?"

She closed her eyes against the wrenching agony in her chest. "Aside from losing my husband? No," she whispered.

The men had the grace to appear embarrassed and apologetic. "Sorry," Ephraim murmured. "We just meant...you've been here a long time, which is rare for...for your kind. Even the Cullens only stayed a few years. We know how hard it's been for you to – to hide yourself, with your options being limited. Travel is what – what your kind do if you want to keep your secret."

"Yes."

"But you've stayed."

"This is my home," she reminded the men. "Where else would I be?"

"But..."

She crossed her arms. "Look. Do you want me to go? Is that what this is about?"

"No, you crazy woman," Quil shot back, clearly exasperated with her. And, she guessed by the glance he threw at him, also with his chief. "We want you to stay, if you can. That's why we're here. Why we want to introduce Thomas to you. I'll be staying in the Council and Eph, here, is an Elder, but if you're staying, the others need to know you. So you can share information and, and..."

"And Protect the Reservation and the humans in the area," Ephraim finished smoothly. "I was actually kind of relieved when Levi told us you might have blood ties to the Makah. And he mentioned Swan, from Forks?" At her bewildered expression – Bella felt dense, but darn it, she was _consumed_ by Levi's slow dying in the cabin at her back – Ephraim smiled with a crooked ruefulness. "I thought that maybe if you had local ties, you'd consider staying on."

She eyed both men with a sagging sort of hopelessness. Suddenly, the future – a future without Levi – stretched out endlessly. She could imagine the deaths of these men who had known her first, here in Washington. She could see their children grow old and die and grandchildren and... And she would remain the same. Alone and cold and unknown to the people of the Quileute Nation and the town of Forks unless she adopted a new identity and avoided one town, then another, year after year, _decade_ after _decade_.

"How? How could I do that? I've kept in touch with Geoff and Helen by phone for years."

"Their son Charlie is good friends with my grandson Billy," Ephraim told her. "He'll be hearing about you, too. Eventually."

Eventually... Years...decades...

"Where else could I go?" she asked, her voice breaking awkwardly. "Who else could keep the others away?"

"You'll be safe, here. The Council knows you. As our only protector, if we can be of any service or ... provide you with something for..for your home... We will."

They were enemies, but – they were neighbors, too. The low, erratic thumping of Levi's heart served as a backbeat to Bella's thoughts. If she agreed, she was committing herself to more pain as friends left the world. She would be volunteering to stay where her heart would surely be crushed. Where she would be lonely...lonelier than she had ever been.

But where else could she go?

"All right. I'll stay. I'd like to meet your sons," she told both men.

They shook on it.

"Bella?"

The men stiffened, their eyes meeting each other's before touching on hers. "Coming, sweetheart!"

"We'll – we'll come back tomorrow. D'you need anything?"

She shook her head and opened the door. "Not today, but thanks." She turned. "Levi?"

He was pulling at the light shirt she had him in for sleeping. Cotton, so that his skin was cool. "Hon. Can't breathe. So heavy."

Dread held her in a clasp so cold that she shuddered. "All right," she said, flashing across the small space between them until she could take his hand in hers. "What can I do to help?"

"Out. I want out."

"Outside?"

"Yeah."

To her, he weighed less than nothing but still his body was a potent presence. "I love you," she whispered into his ear as she maneuvered the door open and got them outside into the fresh cool air. "Is this better?"

"Trees..."

A sob pressed against her throat, her chest, but she held it in. Each step slow and careful, even by human standards, she carried him into the shelter of the trees. "Eph and Quil were here," she said as she held him.

He didn't seem to hear her. "Look at 'em. So tall. So old."

"They're beautiful."

"You're beautiful."

Her eyes burned. "Thank you for loving me."

His breath stopped. His heart slowed and sped and slowed and sped. His breathing was not anxious, nor were his eyes as he slowly turned his focus from the trees to her face. "Thank you. For. Stay. Ing."

"Oh, Levi." Her face and chest ached to cry, to roar, to wail. Instead, she pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Where else would I want to be?"

"Isa. Bell. A."

Her own breath was now erratic, fighting against her emotions as it was. "Right here, sweetheart."

"Be. Ha- Happy."

"Someday. I'll try."

"Love. Love..." His eyes opened wide, gray expanses that almost seemed to swallow his face with a sudden surge of light. "Bella..."

He smiled, the strain leaving the lines of his face as his breath passed slowly from his body.

Her knees buckled and she collapsed, sobbing in loud horrible crashes of sound, over the body of the only man she had ever loved.

His last request to her had been to be happy. She knew she might have decades if not centuries ahead of her...someday, she might be happy again...but as she collapsed on his still, cooling chest, she couldn't do anything but mourn.

When Ephraim came looking for her the next morning, she was still there.

* * *

**Someday, she WILL be happy again. I promise. ~ LJ**


	14. Alone

A/N: Thanks again to **SagaDevotee** for letting me bounce. And a special thanks to **InsaneGrizzlies** for still speaking to me. ;-)

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen: Alone**

**[+]1985[+]**

"Awesome! Like, totally! I just loved Michael J. Fox! And she thought his name was Calvin! That was so bitchin', the way he rode the skateboard!"

"Totally! And Doc Brown! Like, gnarly with the hair, dude!"

It was a Friday afternoon in July and Bella was trying desperately to escape the void of the cabin. _Back to the Future_ had sounded like a good title, so she had driven into Port Angeles – tortured but comforted by the lingering scent traces of Levi in his old car – to see the film. The idea of going back to change things was appealing, certainly.

What would she change? The Marty McFly character went back thirty years. Thirty years would still have her, Bella, here. Fifty years? 1935? Seventy years? 1915?

"Chicago..." Walking slowly to the car, fishing her keys absently from her handbag, Bella remembered Chicago in 1915. She had hurried as far from New York as far as she could go before settling in there for a while. Her lingering Italian accent – courtesy of Volterra – had taken many years to wear off, so she had been viewed as just another Italian immigrant back then. She took in laundry to make some money, because she had wanted to have a visible means of support while she planned what to do next and because if she worked for herself, she could go hunt as needed. No, she wouldn't really want to relive that time of her life.

_In the end_, she mused sorrowfully, there is only today and tomorrow. _And maybe not even tomorrow_.

_Not. Even. Tomorrow._

For her, the _tomorrows_ of existence stretched out unmercifully. She had lived through over three hundred of them since Levi had died in her arms. Not quite a year, about sixty days shy, but close enough. Enough to know in her rocklike bones that she would not miss him any less as time passed. Levi's scent was fading, though. Fading faster every day and she raged quietly, deep inside.

"Nineteen-fifteen. Nineteen-thirty-five. Nineteen-fifty-five. Nineteen-seventy-five. How the hell is Nineteen-ninety-five going to be any different? It'll be Just. The. Same!"

She had only known Ephraim and Quil from the village of La Push while Levi was alive, and had kept in touch only minimally with Geoff and Helen. They knew because their son Charlie was friends with Thomas Black's son, Billy and Billy had known that Levi, a member of the Quileute Council and an Elder, had had a heart attack at Joshua Uley's wedding. And though she considered Eph and Quil dear friends, Geoff and Helen distant family, there was no one for her to talk to about Levi on a regular basis.

She was a Cold One to them, when it came down to it. A friend, yes, but a Cold One all the same.

After the long drive – it felt miserably long and lonely that evening – during which she had nothing to do but think about years she would not relive and other years she might be doomed to live alone here on the soggy Olympic Peninsula, Bella arrived at the cabin. She was feeling a huge pressure inside, one that pulsed down her dead limbs and out from her. A need. A need to feel her beloved. To smell him, taste him, though he had been gone from her for almost a full year. "Levi," she whimpered upon opening the door.

Inhaling deeply, she sought any lingering traces of him, the pressure changing to fury in her body as she picked up item after item and found nothing left of her beloved.

"Levi!" she shrieked, uncaring for the moment if she were overheard. "Where are you? Why did you leave me? Why?"

Her voice came back to silence and suddenly, she snapped. Without regard for the particular items she could grasp, she started screaming and dry-sobbing, her voice catching and cracking and rasping in between sharp-edged moans and yells that continued to echo emptily back to her. These sounds were punctuated by the shattering of wood, glass, and the rending of bedsheets, clothing, and the strangely subdued ripping of rubber and plastic.

The last item was the mirror which she and Levi had used for years. Ebbing violence allowed her to stop and stare at her reflection for a moment. The wild hair that seemed to stick out over her head had bits and pieces of wood chips and loose threads in it. Ink – black, blue and red – from splintered pens stained her movie-going clothes: her usual fashion-neutral pair of jeans and white Oxford shirt.

"He'd be appalled," she whispered, reaching out to herself in the mirror. For just a moment, she imagined she could see narrowed gray eyes hovering over her head, regarding her with a stern light. Shocked, she just tried to meet those eyes. "I'm sorry. I ruined your things..."

"Be happy," his voice whispered to her.

"How?"

The eyes closed, the voice was silent and Bella was left in a cabin filled with the remnants and broken pieces of a beautiful love and an impossible relationship.

**[+] 1989 [+]**

It went against most of what she had promised, but Bella felt very strongly about a boy getting a bicycle when he was young. Sam Uley, Levi's great-grandson, was turning five and Bella wanted him to have a bicycle. In the light of a three-quarter moon, she gathered the small toy/vehicle under her arm, training wheels intact, and slipped from the tree line to the back of where she knew Sharon Uley lived. It wasn't a big house, but it had a fresh coat of paint on it. Fresh meaning that Bella could smell it.

Even though Joshua had left his wife and young son – something that had broken Bella's heart when she heard it last year – Bella hadn't forgotten them. Joshua was almost like her own grandson; Sam almost her great-grandson. She had secretly provided a bike to his ancestors and she would do so now.

"Crap, are you serious?" a low, female voice snapped harshly. "You too? What the hell?"

"I didn't _ask_ him to get me pregnant. Didn't even know he had had a wife –"

"And son!"

Bella heard a light sigh. "Or son. Nothing. He wasn't wearing a ring or anything. He just came by and started working with my cousin."

"And one thing led to another." Sharon's voice was resigned. Bella bit her lip, frowning. Joshua had been developing a reputation as a philanderer even before he had abandoned Sharon and Samuel. "What do you want from me, Laura Call?"

"Nothing," the younger voice shot back. "Not a damned thing. I just thought that maybe I could raise my child closer to his or her family."

"Stay here tonight. We'll work something out tomorrow." There was a pause. "I know Chief Black's getting old, but he and his son will help. I know it."

Another pause. "Thanks, Sharon."

Bella listened but the only sounds that followed were hostess/guest questions. She resolved to keep an ear open as to the birth of Laura Call's baby.

Levi would want that.

**[+] 1991 [+]**

"Mother of all battles, ha! Our boys really socked it to Hussein, eh girl?"

Bella found a smile and tried to nod at the logger, nod as if she hadn't heard variations on that theme in the "nineteen-teens," the forties, fifties, sixties and seventies. "That's what I hear, sir," she said, trying to sound like a college student. A polite college student. Wearing acid-washed jeans and one of the uniform t-shirts the diner asked of its employees, she was doing her best to blend in. "Would you like some peach cobbler?"

"Cobbler? Did I hear cobbler?" A young officer on the local police force came in and Bella bit back a smile. The very image of his father, was Charlie Swan. With him was a Quileute. Someone who looked rather like Thomas Black, so Bella guessed it was his son, Billy. "Diane! D'you have enough left for me and Billy?"

Behind the old Sweda cash register – a relic that customers occasionally remarked upon as "so retro!" – Diane winked. "You betcha! You go on and have yourselves a seat. Marie!"

Bella responded immediately to her latest name. "Coming, Diane."

"Charlie, let me introduce you to my newest girl, Marie Masen." It was a name she had chosen at random from her long past. She borrowed it from a family to whom she delivered laundry in Chicago, back in 1918, when their laundress succumbed to the Spanish Influenza. The Masens had been an affluent family, and so far away she felt sure that she wouldn't run into any of them locally.

Charlie was, of course, her distant cousin. It just wouldn't do to say so. So, she smiled politely. "Hello. I'll get your peach cobbler right away, gentlemen." A singer called Madonna was on the radio, crooning about her love being justified or something. Bella didn't quite "get" the latest in popular music. She had enjoyed swing from the forties, but the latest tunes didn't make her want to do anything other than turn off the radio.

With careful strides, she set dishes of the diner's "famous cobbler" on the different tables and left checks with her other customers. She was only doing this for a while, to replenish her bankroll. Then, she'd continue a more constant schedule of patrols around the Quileute Reservation and the surrounding woods. Alone, no one knowing she was even there except in the legends...

Someone was staring at her. Nostrils flaring, she picked up a heavy male odor of fearful unease. Billy. Oh, Billy Black._ Well of course_, she thought. _He's the son of the chief of the tribe. He probably has an idea about my kind if not me specifically._ She met his eye, her own calm. She couldn't ask after his grandfather, of course, nor his children, though she had heard that Billy and Sarah Black had been blessed with a son recently. Billy was not quite thirty – Bella hoped that meeting her, just this once, wouldn't cause him to phase.

She would, though, have to quit her job at the diner.

**[+]1996[+]**

"Bella," a voice called softly. In the empty cabin, with only three chairs available for Council members, Bella was brushing her hair into a ponytail. "It's me, Quil. And Thomas."

"Come in." No mirror survived the grief-fueled destruction of her furnishings, so she didn't check her reflection before greeting her unexpected company. Quil and Thomas. She and Quil got along all right in late years and she rarely saw Thomas Black at all. They had both expressed their appreciation for her quitting her job at the diner a few years ago. Fortunately, she had not needed much that required money at the time. After smoothing the last tendril of hair behind her ear, she met her guests with a neutral expression. "Is everything all right? Wanting your report? Where's Ephraim?"

Quil took the lead as Elder. He was sixty-seven years old, give or take a few months, and had, of late, started wrinkling a bit more around the edges. Thomas, officially chief of the Nation, was only in his fifties and he let the older man have precedence.

Which was a good thing, Bella thought. Thomas was still a little afraid of _The Cold One_. She was a bogeyman for his people.

Settling awkwardly on the straight-backed wooden chair in front of her cold hearth, Quil took a look around the empty cabin for a moment, his eyes shadowed.

"Do you want a fire?" she asked at length.

"No. Wasn't expecting you to have one, Isabella." He had taken to calling her _Isabella_ when Levi had died almost twelve years prior. He rubbed his hands along his thighs and nodded for Thomas to sit beside him. "Uh, so, how's everything?"

"Pretty quiet along the borders," she reported. "I've only seen one nomad since January. I've taken to leaving scent trails," she continued, "to keep others away."

Thomas raised his hand a little, as if he were in school. As she was standing with customary stillness thirty-eight inches in front of them, it seemed almost appropriate, in a humorous way. "Uh, Mrs. Uley?"

She smiled a little. "Yes?"

"How do you do that?"

"Leave a trail? Venom. I collect it and rub it on tree bark or on the ground at intervals." She spit it on occasion into a an aluminum can she'd found as litter in the forest a while back. Disgusting? Perhaps, but who would tell her so? "Sometimes, I take it out beyond the border to warn travelers away."

Thomas pursed his lips into a silent whistle. "Thank you."

Irritation rustled inside Bella's middle. "So? Where's Ephraim? He usually joins you for these meetings."

Leaning forward, Quil met her question with a direct look. "He passed away yesterday."

Pain sliced through her so that she leaned against the wall next to the hearth. "He wasn't even sick, was he? I didn't smell anything off last time I saw him..." Memories flew through her mind. His first words to her, when he'd had her in a tree; their earliest talks about the legends of his people. How he had told her about the Cullen Coven that had come in the 1930's. Meeting Annie and their daughter, Chrissy. His last patrol. There were decades of memories wrapped up in Ephraim Black. A sob choked her. "I miss him already."

"The last of the original Pack," Quil murmured in addition. "I know. Now, there's only me."

"Yeah."

She bowed her head in silence for a few more moments, more memories filling her mind, rolling like the breaking waves onto the shore. Finally, she asked, "Thomas? How are you doing with this?"

"I'm all right," the man assured her. "No regrets, no hard feelings. He had a good life. A long and useful one. I miss him, but – he was in his eighties, you know?"

"Yeah." Levi had only been in his seventies... "It's a long time for a human. Even one who used to be a werewolf."

Thomas squirmed uncomfortably and she dropped that line of thought. "Is there anything I can do for you or the Council, Quil?"

He rose smoothly to his feet. "I actually brought a copy of the old Treaty by, Isabella. The one we made with the Cullen group sixty years ago."

"Oh?" She took the offered folded sheet of paper. It didn't feel sixty years old, so she imagined it was just recently made. By hand, by the look of it; not with one of those copying machines she had seen at the libraries. She never bought books anymore – she only borrowed, using a library card she had made twenty years before. "Why are you sharing this with me?"

"This is your copy. Just in case. It's been a long time, and I remember that the leader of the coven, the doctor, said he liked the Olympic Peninsula. You don't travel, but most of your kind do, right?"

"Right." She flipped open the paper and read the names and signatures on the bottom.

_Ephraim Black_

on behalf of the Quileute Nation and Alpha of the Wolfpack

_Levi Uley_

_Quil Ateara_

and

_Carlisle Cullen_

_Esme Anne Platt Evanson Cullen_

_Edward Anthony Masen Cullen_

_Rosalie Lillian Hale Cullen_

_Emmett McCarty Cullen_

"So they might come back. This is so you have a copy of who is covered by the Treaty. And here," he went on, holding his hand out to Thomas, who gave him another folded piece of paper. "This is for you. Your copy of our Treaty."

"How many versions of my name have you had on this thing, anyway?" she asked with an ache in her chest. She wondered if it would ever really go away, this lingering pain. "This one is the latest one."

"Isabella Uley, yeah," Quil said, subdued.

Thomas shifted on his chair a little. "My dad signed that one, too, before..." He frowned, looked out of one of the windows, rubbed at the bridge of his nose with a forefinger. "He told me I could sign it too, but – but I figured it wouldn't matter. It felt better having him do it. Um, Mrs. Uley?"

"I'm Bella. Or Isabella, if you want, Chief Black."

He seemed to straighten a bit before standing to join Quil, as if he were thinking, _That's right, I am Chief Black now_. "We're going to be adding someone else to the Council soon, and we want to bring them up again, like they did for me. Will that be all right?"

"Sure, sure," she said with a nod. The changes rippled over her like small waves. Ephraim was gone. A new member on the Council. "I have a question, too."

"Yeah?"

"How's Sam? Sam Uley?" She studied each of their faces closely, looking for hints of trouble.

Thomas broke out in a grin. "Sam? He's doing great. Really. He's into basketball and is doing great. Already talking about college."

"How's his mom?"

Quil fielded that one. "She's working hard, you know. Sharon Uley is very proud. You met her?"

"Not exactly."

He lifted his brows into his forehead but didn't pursue that line of thinking. "She wants Sam to go to college, of course, and we think he'll have a chance. We're all kind of planning in that direction."

"Good. I'm glad that he's doing so well."

Thomas shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. "So, uh, is there anything you, uh, need?" He glanced around her nearly-empty cabin. "I saw you have a generator. Need gas for it?"

The generator had been left out of the general destruction of 1985, since it was outside. She'd let it grow over, a silent reminder of what she had lost and what she had done away with on her own. "No. I don't really need electricity these days." She watched the new Chief Black open and close his mouth, watched Quil smirk and decided to let the man work up his own brand of courage to ask what he wanted.

Finally, he did. "What do you do? Go to a laundromat?"

"Do you see many clothes here?"

"No?"

"No. I have a couple changes of clothes right now, Chief Black. But I really don't need much. I hunt. I wash in the Quillayute. I wash my clothes there too, when they need it. I have this cabin, courtesy of the Council, to stay in when it's sunny or when I want to stay out of the rain or snow. I don't need much."

"But what about when you go out? My dad said you liked to go to the movies."

She picked a piece of non-existent lint from the sleeve of her flannel shirt. "I don't go much anymore. Too easy to run into one of you or your sons and," she said, trying to put a lighter note into her voice, "my favorite actor is Gregory Peck. I just don't see his work out much, since he's –" Her sigh was involuntary. "Since he's getting older, too."

"But – but you do so much for us. I – we – can we get you a video system set up, maybe? I could get some movies for you. Gregory Peck. He was Captain Horatio Hornblower when I was a kid. And then he won an Oscar or two, right? I mean, I could find his movies and you could watch 'em up here and then –" He shrugged, looking somewhat at a loss. "I never know what to say to you, you know?"

Quil clapped the other man on the shoulder. "Come on, you've said enough." He smiled at Bella. "He's young."

She laughed and so did the former werewolf and there was a sense of ease between them. "So are you," she reminded him. "You know, compared to some."

"If you want to take him up on any of his magnanimous offers," Quil said as he moved to the door of the cabin, "let one of us know. We'll be up with Clearwater pretty soon."

"Okay. And thanks."

**[+]2000[+]**

"Levi, it doesn't seem like more than fifteen years," Isabella whispered into the flurries of snow. Perched in a tree overlooking the wintery Pacific Ocean, she reflected that this was the end of another century. She didn't remember 1900, but it was the year she had been turned into a Cold One. A vampire. She had spent more than half this century here, on a small patch of the world called the Olympic Peninsula, ironically defending humans from others of her kind.

For this, she was a stranger to most of her own species.

"You wanted me to be happy," she continued aloud. "I can't say that I am, but I'm not sad all the time. I guess – I guess I'm resigned. Maybe I'll work on our cabin again. Put up curtains." The TV and VCR the Council had given her helped to pass time. She ran the borders but even that didn't take all of her hours. "Maybe I should look for a job again? I'm kind of afraid, Levi. Afraid I'll run into one of the boys from the village and not know it. What if I wind up working with one, you know? Would they start phasing? And I'd need a new identification. You would not believe the stink all of that requires these days. It was easier back when we met, you and I."

Oddly, she didn't feel like sobbing as the old century fell away under the moonlight to be plundered and smoothed out of existence with the surf. "Thomas is Chief. Harry Clearwater is the newest member of the Council. Quil – you would not believe how grown up he is now that he's got another namesake. There's a new generation on the Reservation now. We've kept 'em safe so far..."

That was a good enough reason to stay. She nodded into the snow. "I'm doing my best."

* * *

**E/N: Coming up: The Cullens return to the Peninsula...on Friday!**


	15. Coven

**A/N: Thank you so much for your continued enjoyment of this story! Prepare for a twist in the road ahead...**

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen: Coven**

"Oh, no." Bella eyed the newspaper she had purchased from a mechanical dispenser. She didn't often bother but she was in Seattle and saw the entire front page of the Seattle Post Intelligencer with all its headlines and images. One of them captured her eye – Gregory Peck had died.

For some reason, her chest clenched tightly, her eyes burned and she felt sobs choking her. It was ridiculous, she told herself. Ridiculous that she would have such a sudden, powerful urge to howl – just like a werewolf – her grief for a man she had never met. She had loved his work, his voice, his presence onscreen. She had read about him in the library and found that he had been married for decades to the same woman and she admired that. "It's just so sad," she said aloud.

It was another milestone in a life that seemed lately to be filled with them. How long would her road stretch out before her, milestone after milestone?

One milestone that she looked forward to, though, occurred shortly after the death of her favorite actor. After doing a careful reconnaissance of the situation, Bella breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed this rite of passage.

"Graduating with honors: Samuel Uley. He will be attending Peninsula College in Port Angeles, with a major in Business."

The graduation ceremony was being held in the Council Hall. It was the biggest building in LaPush. Though the graduating class from the Reservation's high school was small, the entire community was invested in these young people and there was a huge turn-out to see them get their diplomas. Sam Uley's great-grandmother, for all intents and purposes, was no exception. Bella drifted near the side door, leaning against the outer wall of the main assembly room, keeping her eye on the raised platform. Sam smiled and winked at a young woman who was seated not too far from where Bella was.

"Leah! He winked at you!"

Leah Clearwater. Yes. Harry Clearwater's daughter. They were still together then? That was good. Bella was happy to see Sam so happy. Levi would be proud. Sam looked so much like him it was eerie.

But she had stayed here as long as she could allow herself. As soon as there was another round of applause, Bella slipped out the door and set off at a fast walk for the nearest trees of the forest. She had a job to do. Slipping out of her dress shoes – she wore women's trousers and a long-sleeved blouse with a soft, floral motif – she took off at fast human jog on a circuitous route to her cabin.

And she smelled them. On the Eastern border. Vampires. A _coven_ of them, if her nose didn't lie to her. Seven! Seven scents.

Fear exploded in her midsection as she stood, frozen in the sunlight. Seven. The Volturi might send out a party that large to find her. Aro might have found the pieces of Corin or just to take his vengeance on her for disobedience. He might have. She had been...handy for him to have around. But it had been almost a hundred years! Hadn't he given up?

But no, wait! That blond vampire. The one who was going to Philadelphia. Him. He knew she was here and she let him leave!

More concerned in that moment about whether or not a large group of vampires was near the border than she was about showing glimpses of sparkling hands to humans, Bella flashed and blurred, checking the several scents that had passed on just the other side of the border.

Yes! His was among them. Jasper Whitlock with the grin and the slight accent. Texas. Yes.

She didn't swear too often, but a streak of words as blue as any that the Pack had used in the forties and fifties slid from her mouth while she retreated to the shadows of the forest. She had to protect the Reservation, first of all. And such a large group – they wouldn't want to be seen in the daylight. They'd wait until the fall of night. Aro would have trained them well. Yes, he would.

"I have to hunt," she muttered to herself as she tore off at a vampire-sprint to the cabin. She would need to be as strong as possible if there was a coven that large in the area. Consciously, she employed her shield as she arrived home. There were curtains on the windows, now. Light-blocking so that if she had the television and VCR on to watch her favorite Gregory Peck films – as well as some recent adaptations of Jane Austen novels that she found acceptable – the flickering of light through the small windows would not attract attention. Inside, she had four straight-backed chairs instead of three, and there was once again a bookshelf.

But there was no table – she didn't eat – and no bed because she didn't sleep. She would have to look into getting a forged identification at some point, so she could work for a while and renew her funds, but for now...she managed and the Council occasionally funneled some money to her. She was working for them, in essence, so did not view that as charity.

Though she did not often hunt in the daylight, she would today. Slipping out of her graduation-ceremony clothes, she slid into a pair of dark jeans and a pine green, long-sleeved t-shirt with Peninsula College's logo on it. She had bought it a few years ago from a sale table. With it, her usual adopted ID as a student was completely accepted.

Hair up in a ponytail, she cared more for getting a good kill than for giving another bit of "proof" to the legends. It wasn't as if people would stop talking if she made herself more scarce.

**[+]**

It was full dark without a hint of moonlight when she began to monitor the eastern border. Overhead, the clouds gathered into the cooling air. Bella kept her shield up to protect her mind. To protect her body, she was in a tree. A very specific Sitka Spruce from which she could leap with relative ease to three other trees or to the ground. The winds were placid, that evening, making the waves quiet on the beach and the trees whisper softly. The scents of the coven had not yet been washed away as there had been no rain since the seven individuals had passed this way.

A squirrel ran quickly across the stream. Bella saw it. A wolf – normal and mundane these days – howled off to the north. She noted it and filed it away but her focus was on the land to the east, in the direction of Forks. She considered leaving the border and doing her surveillance closer to the small town, but she decided that her first responsibility was to the people of La Push. Levi and the Council would have it so.

Then, just before she judged it to be midnight, she caught the movement of a head – movement, but no heartbeat. A blond head. At first, she thought it might have been Jasper Whitlock, but the scent was wrong. Wrong for that vampire, but it was a scent that had been among the seven.

"Where are the rest of you?" she asked in a quiet voice she knew he would hear anyway.

The stranger halted twenty-seven feet from the tree where she watched. His head tilted to find her, unerringly. His eyes were golden. "I'm not here to hunt," he said first. "I didn't expect to find you here. I'm Carlisle Cullen and I was passing through to meet with the chief of the Quileute people, as per an old arrangement."

Still wary, Bella nevertheless dropped from the tree, bracing herself with her hand before standing upright. She never had quite got the knack for landing with ease and grace. "Carlisle Cullen? I know of you. I have seen a copy of the Treaty. There are only five names on it, however. You will need to account for the others I scented earlier."

The blond vampire smiled a little, in a reassuring manner. She felt no different and nothing pulsed at her mind, so she relaxed minutely as he stepped closer to her. "I see you have golden eyes, but you are not from the Denali."

"Denali? No."

"Are you a nomad? I haven't met any animal-drinkers who lived as nomads, before." Still friendly, still open as far as she could ascertain, the newcomer extended his hand. "You have me at a disadvantage, then. Carlisle Cullen, most recently from Alaska and former resident of these parts. And you are?"

She took his offered hand in greeting, but her other limbs remained poised for attack or flight. "Isabella Uley." It was the name on her Treaty with the Council and it served as well as any. "I'm the Protector of the tribe."

"Uley?" Carlisle's voice sounded incredulous as he let her hand go, but also somewhat pleased. "So you're Quileute? Or, you were?"

At this, Bella snorted lightly. "Makah, or at least, that's what I've inferred. But only part. Actually, I'm from Italy."

Carlisle's grin broke free. "Bella Milano? You've met Jasper Whitlock, then. He and his mate, Alice, are part of my family."

Bella stiffened, immediately seeking Jasper Whitlock in the forest behind Carlisle Cullen. "Him. He has a thing or two to answer for," she groused. "I need to talk to him." Then, she shook her head. "He's not covered by the Treaty. We'll have to arrange something."

Carlisle fidgeted in a human manner that mildly baffled Bella. She hadn't had to do so in years. "You said you're a Protector, then?"

"Yes, by Treaty."

"You met the werewolves who were here, before." It wasn't a question, but she nodded anyway. "And you're a Uley now, when you weren't before?"

"I was the wife of Levi Uley," she stated, her voice clear and a little defiant. "You met him."

"I did and he was a fine man, but I'm confused, now." Before she could explain, he waved his hand in the air as if to wipe something away. "Why don't you come back to the house, meet the rest of the family, and we can get acquainted. We've only met the Denali sisters who were animal drinkers like we are, so you'd be a welcome guest. My wife Esme would love to meet you."

The mere idea of being in the midst of a group of vampires – family or coven – made Bella vastly uneasy. "I'd rather not. I – I'm not accustomed to groups of vampires." She straightened her shoulders. "But I can show you where Chief Black's house is. His name is Thomas. He's Ephraim's son."

Carlisle's brow rose. "Thank you. But I do wish you'd reconsider. Could we arrange for my wife to come to you? Where do you live?"

"I patrol the borders and live on Quileute land. I'm allowed," Bella added with unconscious pride. "They – the Tribal Council – gave me a home. My husband and I lived there for almost twenty-five years before he died." She could still see Levi's face on their first morning together after they had broken the bed. And then on their last morning together, when she had held his hand during the night and listened to his heart beat and his shallow breaths. Her voice was low when she added, "I live there still."

Carlisle Cullen stroked his chin with his fingers. "Perhaps you and Esme could meet here on the border."

"How long are you staying?"

"A few years. My children – the younger members of my family – will attend the local high school. I am a physician and will be working at Forks General. We won't be here long."

"Great."

"What?" he asked, seeming genuinely curious about her less-than-receptive tone.

"Now the families with the right bloodlines – and maybe even others – won't feel like they can go to the hospital, because you're there. The Elders won't allow it. Carlisle Cullen, I have avoided the younger male members of the tribe for almost sixty years in order to keep them safe. The only time I didn't was when my – Levi's – great-grandson graduated high school today. Even then, I limited my contact with everyone. You have to consider that your coming could be a real problem for the Quileutes."

He didn't respond immediately, which she appreciated. The wind picked up a bit while he thought, bringing with it the scent of more marijuana. Pot, the kids called it. It was everywhere in the woods anymore. The locals – tribal and townies – seemed to treat it almost as their forefathers had treated alcohol. She wondered what it was that seemed to have silenced the blond coven leader in front of her.

"I can't really see any way around that, Isabella. Isn't there a hospital on the Reservation?"

"It's limited."

"I see. Well, it won't be for too long. I can't quit my job so soon after acquiring it, you know; it draws suspicion."

She sighed and grimaced and shrugged. Really, there wasn't anything she could do about it. "Did you want to meet with Chief Black?"

"Yes, thank you. Perhaps, in light of the precautions you mentioned, you could bring him here?"

"At this hour?"

It was his turn to grimace. "Right."

They agreed upon a time when she would be able to speak with Thomas and arrange a meeting with Carlisle. She also agreed to meet the members of his coven that wished to become acquainted – but only on a one-on-one basis.

"You haven't been around our kind," Carlisle said in understanding. "We can work up to it."

"I _would_ like to meet your mate. I – I haven't had much female companionship in quite some time. And _then_ I would like to speak with Jasper Whitlock. You will have to vouch for him, you know. For the Treaty. Chief Black and the Council will probably want to meet with you."

A nod. "I would expect nothing less. Will you be here tomorrow night?"

"Barring incident, yes."

Carlisle Cullen extended his hand once more. "Then I will bid you good evening, Isabella Uley. My wife will certainly look forward to meeting you."

"She will?"

The grin was back in evidence. "We've all heard of you, of course."

Jasper Whitlock. _Damn the man!_ "Of course."

**[+]**

After leaving Carlisle Cullen at the border, Bella pulled her hair out of its ponytail and stole into the village to Quil Ateara's front door. This was not something she did, as a rule, but when she had to get in touch with them aside from their regularly scheduled meetings, she would wrap something on the handle of his front door.

"I need some way to get in touch with you that won't endanger anyone," she had insisted once, years ago.

"Fine, but it has to be subtle and if you see anyone you have to leave immediately."

That being agreed upon, they had decided on this means of signaling. Quil's imprinted wife had been brought in on the secret – she had met and married him while he was still phasing – in order that she would not be suspicious. Besides, Quil said there were no secrets from an imprint. Period.

Having left her hair band, she returned to her patrol. Though, to be honest, it was highly unlikely that any true nomad would come near the eastern border until the next hard rain. The Cullen Coven's scents would keep others away.

Quil, on behalf of the Council, gave Bella permission to have one Cullen in to visit her at the cabin at a time. He, Thomas and Harry Clearwater went to the border to meet with Carlisle. Bella was invited to join them, and of course she did, if only to confront Jasper Whitlock.

She wanted to make a good impression on the new coven since they were, evidently, going to be neighbors and she really hadn't had anyone she considered a neighbor since perhaps the nineteen-sixties or -seventies. She wore her "going out" dress that she liked for museums and the rare day trip away from the Reservation's boundaries. An updated version of the "little black dress" and low heels that she carried as she ran to the appointed meeting place, a clearing just outside the borders. A natural circle, pretty much, with some lush, rain-replenished grasses that were regularly trimmed by the local deer. Deer didn't eat much grass, she had learned over the decades, but multiply one deer's minimal consumption by all the deer that passed through and it was enough to keep the clearing from becoming too wild.

Bella reached the clearing first, having no one else to be accountable to and no other responsibilities. She smoothed her hair, feeling where it fell just above her bra-strap on her back, slipped her shoes on and waited.

Quil, Harry and Thomas arrived together in Thomas' newer-model Honda. The engine was audible for more than a mile. They had only just parked the car and reached the Reservation-side of the clearing when the vampire coven seemed to appear like spirits on the other side. Carlisle Cullen nodded at her and put an arm around a woman she guessed was his mate, Esme. Jasper jerked his chin up in a casual greeting and pulled a tiny elf of a girl against his side. Carlisle had mentioned a mate and Bella guessed the petite person was said mate.

As to the rest, she studied them while Chief Black, Quil and Harry moved slowly to the middle of the clearing. Carlisle, after a gesture to the others, went to meet them on his own.

There was a huge fella, standing near a fashion-model blonde. They were on the opposite end of the coven's line from Jasper Whitlock and his mate. The man-mountain had to be six and a half feet tall. The woman next to him radiated possessiveness that Bella had no wish to challenge. Esme, Carlisle's mate, was now standing near another male and Bella wondered if Esme and Carlisle had another partner. In Volterra, such relationships happened, though they were often transitory in nature when they involved a mated pair. The lone male was a leader of some sort, Bella gathered. The others kept glancing toward him. He nodded, but never opened his mouth. To Bella, this spoke of his authority more than anything. He had hair that was a gleaming red-brown-autumn color she could only call bronzed. Shorter than the man-mountain and Jasper Whitlock, he was taller than Carlisle, she judged.

He looked familiar and she frowned.

He stared at her and he frowned as well. That annoyed her, so she decided to interrupt.

"Quil?"

He didn't hesitate to answer. "Yes, Isabella?"

"May I join you? I had a question for the coven's leader."

He quirked a brow at her, the dark line adding lines to his forehead. "Yeah, sure."

The coven across the clearing stiffened and every golden eye was focused on her. She could feel their attention as if it were light fabric brushing her skin. She renewed her attention to her shield and flashed to Quil's side, running a hand over her hair to settle it when she stopped.

"Isabella, good to see you again," Carlisle said smoothly. His hands were crossed loosely in front of him.

"Good evening, Carlisle Cullen. I had a question about your second in command."

"My what?"

The men of the Reservation looked to her warily. She persevered. "The one standing with Esme in your stead. Is he of the Volturi? Is that why everyone is deferring to him? I – I came from Volterra and would rather they not be informed as to my current whereabouts." Not that those had changed in almost sixty years, but that was beside the point.

"He is not of the Volturi. He was the first person I changed. On his deathbed in Chicago."

The old comic strips used the image of a lightbulb going off over a character's head when they had a good idea or something became clear to them. Bella imagined that to be happening now, to her. She pressed her lips tightly together. "I know him. Well, I have _seen_ him before, now that you give me those details."

There was a sudden flurry of movement and soon, the entire coven was crossing to the central part of the clearing. "You know him? From before? Jasper said you were from Italy! Wait, how can you know Edward?"

The young-looking vampire approached her, confusion written all over his strikingly handsome features. "Please, won't you tell me? I've got a lot of questions and I can't find the answers in your mind."

Panic engulfed her, briefly holding her limbs hostage. "No! No, stop! No, I – I can't. Too many. Too many of you right now. I – I'm sorry. Please – please excuse me," she managed to stammer. She was entirely unnerved by the sudden near-surrounding of so many vampires.

"Isabella! Come back!" It was Quil who called after her, his tone both worried and exasperated. "They retreated!"

He didn't have his lupine-sharp hearing anymore, so he didn't hear her refusal.

Too many vampires. Too many. "I'm sure they're all very nice," she breathed as she leapt over a stream and hurried for the sanctuary of her cabin and the escape into Gregory Peck movies. "I'm sure that Carlisle Cullen will keep his coven out of the Reservation, per the Treaty. He seems trustworthy.

"But there is no way I'm putting myself in the middle of a coven of that size."

She would have to check in with the Council soon to find out if the two newest members of the coven were added to those protected by the Treaty. Jasper and his mate.

Her flurry of fear subsided as she recollected the group of vampires. They all had mates. She recognized that. Jasper and his elf. Carlisle and Esme. Man-mountain and the model. All save the bronze-haired Edward Masen, whom she had seen as a human in 1918 coming home after a walk with a man identified as his tutor.

Bella had to smile a little as she pulled out _Roman Holiday_ for her movie of the night.

Edward Masen's hair was as much of a mess in this century as it had been in the last.

* * *

**A/N: So they're back! How do y'all feel about that?**

**In other news... I was inspired to write for a contest. Yeah. Information is on my profile or you can just go read my story Little Miss Sunshine here: ht tp: / / www. fanfiction. net/ s/ 6629757/ 1/ Thank you! **

**Update for WKY on TUESDAY...yep, currently back to two-a-week, as long as I can keep it up. ;-)**


	16. Letter

A/N: This chapter is, by its nature, vampire-centric. It takes us to Edward's mind. My thanks again to **SagaDevotee** and **Katmom** for thinking I can write and to **LisaBebe11** for her idea! For those who were wondering, the year is **2003**.

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen: Letter**

_She knows you? Do you remember her?_

_Edward, she never mentioned you, I swear._

_Son? Are you all right?_

Edward held up one hand, still trying to find the elusive mental voice of Isabella Uley, or Bella Milano, as Jasper had named her. He recalled the first time he'd heard of her.

. . .

_It was 1950 and Alice the psychic and Jasper the empath had kicked Edward out of his room while he was out playing human. When he returned, he plundered Jasper's mind, worried about the safety of his family with such a scarred and dangerous newcomer in their midst. _

_He saw another vampire with golden eyes. A female whom he had never seen before and – picking up on Carlisle's thoughts – whom his sire had never encountered, either. The strange female was beautiful, of course, in the darkness of a forest that the empath's mind put in the northwestern United States. All their kind were beautiful. Thick dark hair and golden eyes and a stance to her that showed spirit, heart and determination. But it had been years since she had shown the empath the door, as it were. He had no idea of anything else about her except that Jasper had noticed (but only to himself) that she had been gradually more resistant to his talent. Nomads traveled. Carlisle's family was noted for staying put for years at a time, so there was a slight possibility that this Bella might still have been where Jasper saw her but –_

_Edward refused to leave in pursuit of her. Just because he thought she was beautiful and intriguing was no reason to abandon his family when a possibly dangerous addition was being cobbled into it._

. . .

Fifty-three years later, and she was still here? And on intimate terms, apparently, with the local Native Americans on the Reservation. So _intimate_ she had been married to one of them, according to Carlisle's memory of their initial meeting. Married and living on the Reservation. Married to Levi Uley, whom Edward could recollect with perfect clarity.

How could any vampire be _intimate_ with such a stinking wolf?

His brows pushed together with his frown. "No, I don't recall seeing her before, Emmett."

"She's not someone you'd forget, is she?" his brother said in a jocular manner. "How many of us are nomads, anyway?"

"She's not a nomad," one of the Quileute men stated flatly. "I've known Isabella since I was a teenager. She's been here since 1944. We refrained from executing her," the former werewolf said. _Though I wanted to at the time, Ephraim and Levi didn't. And I guess I'm glad._ "She is the widow of an old friend and is under the protection of the Tribal Council, since the Pack is no more. We expect you to respect her wishes as you would respect ours, per the Treaty."

_Edward, what is it?_

"I can't read her mind."

Surprise reached him from every member of his family, except Jasper. _Ha. Told ya, Edward. She's got something up with that. Some kind of resistance. That little girl with the Volturi that we came across in 1962? We got to talking about the Volturi and how Aro looks for vampires with talents, you know?_

Horrified, Edward turned to stare directly into Jasper's eyes. No further communication was needed.

**[+]**

_Edward. She was quite clear. She will only see us one at a time. I am not going to intrude on her. She's skittish, son. Remember, she's lived alone here a long time._

"Not that alone. She was married to one of them. How the hell did they manage that? How did they _not_ kill each other?" Not that Bella would have fed on a werewolf, but that any kind of sexual relationship would have put them both in jeopardy, wouldn't it? His confusion and frustration on this point were entirely too preoccupying. He put it down to the anomaly of Bella Milano – he preferred to think of her by the name she had given to Jasper in 1947 – having known him or known _of_ him. It must have been while he was human, and he was desperate to know what she could tell him.

It had nothing to do with her intriguing silence of mind or the wish he had to protect her from the panic that had clearly gripped her. Jasper had indicated she was nearly hysterical by the time she ran.

At least Jasper had permission to see her.

_Now, don't go getting jealous, brother-mine_, Alice admonished from her room. A vision slid through her mind of his – Edward's – cornering of Jasper upon his return from Bella's cabin in the woods. _I can't see what decisions she's making, but I guarantee you that my husband is only planning on asking her about the local squirrel population._

She replayed the very first conversation she had with Jasper in Philadelphia in 1948, wherein he asked her if she ate squirrels.*****

Against his will, Edward snorted up in his third floor room with its glass window-wall and sleek furnishings. The mere idea of Bella feeding from squirrels was ludicrous. But also amusing and he could see why Jasper would ask that.

He made the decision to call to Alice that he promised not to slam her spouse against a wall. She saw that and thanked him silently and then he didn't have to say a thing, freeing his mind to seek more information as he could about Bella Milano.

_You can't avoid her married name, Edward_. Carlisle's thoughts reached him with their usual purposeful clarity. _The Quileutes are her family_.

"They're not even her kind! How can they be her family?" Edward muttered, reclining on the bed Esme had insisted the room needed to "look right." The bedspread was in a black and taupe pattern. He tapped his fingers against the taut fabric, aware that the entire family minus Jasper was listening. "I just want to ask her about what she remembered about me. Did she know my mother?"

_That is a golden opportunity, Edward, and I don't blame you, but don't rush her. She's almost feral_, Rosalie opined from the living room where she was poring over Popular Mechanics. _ Hmmm. I like the new BMW M3. In red. I want that one. Sorry. Anyway, be patient. She's not likely to be going anywhere. I know if I'd been widowed, I'd have a hard time moving on._ "At least she's got a job," Rosalie added out loud. "Which is more than some of us have."

Laughter echoed throughout the house and Edward smirked at the smooth ceiling of his room. "I don't suppose she'd want some help?"

Carlisle chuckled, too. "You know the Quileutes won't allow for that on their side of the border."

Edward knew. He just wondered if he would get to meet with her. To ask about his mother, of course.

**[+]**

Two weeks later, in July, Esme was invited to go beyond the boundary to visit with Bella. Edward unapologetically started plundering her mind as soon as she reached the front door.

Bella, her hair hanging loose down her back, had been dressed for hunting as she and Esme ran from the border to the cabin. Edward saw the trees fly by in Esme's mind and noted Bella's grace as she ran.

_I was doing my best to get details for you, Edward_, his mother-of-intent thought with a sly note of amusement in her mental voice. _She was very formal at first, but she relaxed over our visit._

At the cabin, Edward saw – as he had not with Jasper's visit as Bella had not taken Jasper back to her home – light-buffering curtains on her windows, a television and an old video cassette player as well as chairs. Esme was invited to sit and her thought to Edward was, _I almost expected her to ask if I wanted tea_.

Esme asked about Bella's life and what she did to fill her time, being a stationary single vampire without a family. The answers were bleak, to Edward's way of thinking, but it was clear that Bella was proud of her role as Protector. She shared, too, about her husband and Edward found that Levi Uley had died in 1984.

"His imprint had died in 1942, years before I met him," Bella said in Esme's purpose-called memory. "We sometimes talked about the differences between the mating of a werewolf and his imprint versus marrying for love."

"I imagine it's like a mate bond for our kind," Esme said mildly.

Bella sighed and glanced out one of her small windows. "I have seen mate bonds. Your mate claimed them for you and I could see them in the rest of your coven."

"We're a family, Bella. We'd love to have you visit with us sometime. Surely, you could come spend some time with us. Could you leave your duties for a day?"

Bella met Esme's eyes with caution, Edward saw. "I would rather not, Esme. I mean no offense – it's not you or your family so much as it is _any_ group of vampires that large."

"I know Edward would like to meet with you," Esme ventured.

Bella didn't even blink. "He wants to hear about his mother. Perhaps I could write down what I remember and send it with you."

Disappointment hit Edward in the stomach so that he clenched his jaw against giving voice to it. He and Esme were in the living room – she on the sofa and he standing near the cold hearth – but his mind was in Esme's thoughts and the sparsely furnished living space of Bella Milano. "I can't even see any writing instruments," he muttered darkly, sure that Bella would renege.

"I didn't see them, either. Bella said she'd get some."

"With what? She lives like she's destitute." He wondered if he could somehow improve her circumstances. He had met enough nomads over the decades of his existence to know that they rarely had even enough to keep themselves decently clothed. Perhaps he could arrange for a small sofa to be sent to her. Or an armoire. She had her clothes hanging on pegs, like a primitive!

Esme snorted. "You've become spoiled, Edward. Most of our kind live in less pleasant circumstances than she does. She seems content. Don't judge."

"I'm not judging. I'm _remarking_."

Over the rest of the summer, Bella invited Alice and Carlisle one by one and then, before school started in September, Rosalie and Emmett in tandem. Since there were the two of them, Bella would meet with them at the border. Edward sort of invited himself to go along, since the one-on-one stricture had apparently been lifted.

_Bro. This is not a good idea_. Emmett's thoughts were clear as they ran through the forest in the wet night. September's rain was annoying, but not off-putting. _She didn't invite you._

"I'll leave if she asks."

Rosalie glanced over at him. _ If she doesn't kick your ass. You saw the way she tried to take Jasper's arm off when he said he'd told Jane about her._

The memory actually made Edward smile with some sort of unfounded pride in Bella. Jasper had been enthusiastic and commended her when he was, as he put it, debriefed. "She fought like nothing I've ever come up against. Not like a newborn and not like one of us. She had a different kind of style."

"She was taught by wolves!" Emmett had shouted from the rec room in their home. "What the hell did you expect? A dart game?"

Jasper had also warned him that he, Jasper, would fight Edward himself if Edward "forced his notice" on the feisty female. "She's got every reason to be wary, brother. You'd best watch yourself. She might look fragile, but the girl can stand up for herself."

Over the months, Edward acknowledged to himself a growing obsession with the woman that transcended anything he had ever experienced. He had taken to prowling the woods on their side of the boundary, listening for anything he could that might relate to her. Sometimes, hikers and campers mentioned a Quileute maiden and her wolf companion who ran through the night to safeguard the Nation. Sometimes the wolf was the maiden's supernatural bodyguard, sometimes the strange pair were lovers.

Lovers. Wonderful. She had had a _legendary lover_. How would he, Edward, manage to distract her attention from that? And why did he want to? She had made it patently clear that she wanted next to nothing to do with him. This sort of dismissal was not something to which he was accustomed. He had had one lover in the course of his existence, but it didn't mean he hadn't received a great many offers.

It had been during his rebellious period that he had taken up with a girl who had encouraged him in his vigilantism. She had even helped, seducing the scum so that they could occasionally share in their efforts to do away with the rotten souls of the world. With human blood fresh in their bodies, they had shared _other_ passions.

He had not fooled himself, knowing soon enough that he would not be able to stay in such a relationship. His lover, a vampire by the name of Susanna, had been strong and demure outside of their sexual encounters, but an able and willing teacher to a young fellow in private. A profligate lifestyle it had been, too, while it had lasted. But then, she had found a male with wealth who would take her traveling, and she had left.

It wasn't too long after that that Edward realized that his rebellious period was over.

Edward followed Emmett and Rosalie, who ran side by side as they reached the pre-set meeting place. Bella was allowed to go to the beach, but the Treaty forbade the Cullens from doing so, so they were to meet at the edge of forest where it came closest to the beach. She ran along the shore; he could see her approach, the sand kicking up from the balls of her bare feet when she leapt to the rocks and her hair flying out behind her. His chest was so tight he couldn't draw in a breath.

Emmett clouted him on the back of the head. _Edward. You better leave. She could just throw you off the cliff. I wouldn't necessarily stop her_.

Rosalie, as if sensing the silent quasi-conversation going on between the men, snorted softly before calling out to Bella. "Hey! You're late."

There was a light laugh that gladdened Edward's heart. It cut off abruptly. "He's here. What is _he_ doing here?" She took the last leap up the last few yards of sharp, rocky edges and landed with a strange awkwardness that one did not normally see in vampires. Hands on hips, her denim-clad legs set lightly apart, she glared at Edward. "Well? You were not invited. Go away."

Emmett and Rosalie both thought,_ I told you so!_ but didn't say anything out loud. They did, though, clear the way for him to physically approach Bella. Or perhaps for her to approach him! He took a step toward her but she clenched her fists at her sides and growled, deep in her chest.

He was immediately turned on by this, but froze where he stood. "I know. But school starts tomorrow and then I will be more closely watched, perhaps, and won't necessarily have the freedom to come see you at your convenience, if you give me the chance to do so." He tried extending his hand to her.

She refused it, looking at it until he lowered it again. Then, she said, "I actually brought notes for you, in my pocket." She withdrew a sheaf of folded paper and held it next to her chest. "I had planned on giving it to your coven-mates."

"I'll take it," Rosalie said. _She might be leery of a male coming too close to her alone. Remember, she didn't even allow Jasper back to her place. A woman alone has to be careful, and here are two males she doesn't even know. Back the hell off, Edward!_

Heeding Rosalie's direction, Edward did back off, a few paces, while Rosalie approached Bella and got the papers from her. "Thanks, Isabella. I know my brother appreciates this. It's not every one of us who gets information from their human life."

"I know," the brunette replied, her hands relaxing. "I don't remember anything of mine."

Her sadness as she confessed this touched Edward and made him feel like a real heel for pushing his attention on her. He accepted the papers from Rosalie in silence, thanked Bella, and turned to run home.

"I know, I know," he said in answer to Jasper's angry thoughts as he reached the back deck of the house in the woods. "I won't do it again. She gave me what I wanted," he muttered, pushing past his taller brother.

Jasper grabbed his arm as he tried to move to the stairs. "Just a second there, boy. What the hell did you not get about heeding the wishes of a lady? A widowed woman? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I was wrong! I know it. I'll steer clear of her and the Reservation and everything else unless she seeks me out first, okay?"

Jasper shoved him roughly away from him, a nearly overwhelming wave of angry guilt following him all the way up the stairs.

He wasted no time in throwing himself on the bed and unfolding the papers. Bella's handwriting was irregular but her lines were absolutely straight across the page. She started off very formally, which Edward found a bit discouraging.

The Masens of Chicago

_I met Elizabeth Masen in 1918. I was a laundress in Chicago at the time, trying to learn to speak without my Italian accent. The Masens were a wealthy family whose private laundress had succumbed to the Spanish Influenza. I met their upper housemaid quite by accident in the millinery, when she was picking up an order for Mrs. Masen._

_Mrs. Masen had freckles across her nose, green eyes and a fierce temper when provoked, according to the maids. She liked her cuffs starched and her skirts pressed without flaws. She paid well, but did not speak to me – I was hired help, though self-employed in my own right. Her hair was a deep auburn with a tendency to curl. _

_Mr. Edward Masen I only saw once. He was a handsome man with a heavily waxed mustache and thick hair that I think was light brown. It was heavily oiled, though, so that was hard to discern even for my eyes. He walked rapidly and was a busy man, by all appearances._

_They had one son: Edward Anthony Masen. I only saw you once, Edward. I suppose you go by __Cullen__ now, since your sire continues to speak of you as a "family" and of you and Alice and Jasper and Emmett and Rosalie as "children" even though they are all mated and you are clearly a child in human age only. You had been walking with your tutor and were discussing something in Latin. I didn't speak Latin, so I have no idea what you were going on about, but you were very passionate about whatever it was. You saw me leaving the servant's entrance. Your tutor elbowed you in the ribs and doffed his hat. You did likewise, led by his good example. I curtsied and waited for you to pass. _

_You never did speak to me, but I didn't expect it. _

_I did laundry for your mother twice more before, upon returning the final bundle to the Masen house, I heard that you had all succumbed to the Influenza and were under the care of a Dr. Cullen. I went to the hospital at night to see how you were, smelled vampire, and promptly left Chicago._

_This, then, is the only knowledge I have of your family. I am sorry there is not more. Truly._

_Sincerely,_

_Isabella_

"Well at least she left off her last name." And she had closed her little report on a much more familiar note than she had begun it. He was encouraged by this.

_Now if only she'd invite me to visit with her..._

The invitation did not come.

* * *

*** From a "hidden scene" where WKY Jasper meets Alice only after meeting Bella. Found in my cabin in A Different Forest. Link in my profile or take out the spaces here: ht tp: / / www. adifferentforest. com/ Forums/ Posts. aspx? ID=91 & Page=21**

**If you aren't a Camper there, PM me and I'll send it to you! :)**


	17. Christmas

**A/N:** Thank you all so much for the love you've shown Bella during her relationship with Levi and how you were sad with her upon his death. Your compassion for this fictional heroine is beautiful. And the reviews for last chapter blew me away. Like. Wow. You guys are so thoughtful and communicative. I appreciate you!

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen: Christmas**

"I am not going crazy," Bella told herself. Frequently. "I'm a vampire. I am not going crazy." Just because she kept _thinking_ she saw Edward Masen Cullen did not mean she _hadn't_ seen him. "Maybe he's patrolling too?" she wondered aloud as she ran through the trees.

It had been satisfying, writing out what she knew of his history. She felt regret that she hadn't had more to give him on that score. He was obviously the odd man out in his coven. His "family." Surrounded by mated pairs, she could understand how he'd so desperately and ill-advisedly seek any information he could get to fill the holes that he might have in his heart.

She had learned a lot about him from the members of his coven. Enough that she had had the feeling that they – all of them, with the possible exception of Jasper Whitlock – had the insane idea that she could be his partner and thus round out the family. Oh, it wasn't hideously obvious and perhaps she had been dwelling on that idea too much in her solitude, but she didn't think she was entirely wrong.

"He wants to meet with you." "Oh, you'll have to tell Edward that when you see him." "Ever think of getting a new car? Edward's our car collector and Rosalie's our mechanic, so if you ever need anything..." "Oh, Edward's a mindreader, you know. We think his effective radius is about a mile – but he's never told us exactly if it's beyond that."

Edward, Edward, _Edward_!

On the northern border this October night, Bella looked toward Canada and thought of Edward.

"He's intrusive," she whispered into the hearty breezes. "Pushy."

_He's lonely_, her heart whispered back.

"So? I'm lonely. It's not like someone has to be annoying when they're lonely." She wasn't crazy; he _had_ been on the eastern border the night before. Her eyes were more attuned to the area than his likely were, so she had been able to spot and avoid the mindreader.

"Lucky for you, he can't read _your_ mind!" Alice had told her with a laugh.

Alice was a fascinating person. If she had been the only Cullen to have come to Forks, Bella would have been willing to petition for her to have unrestricted access to the Reservation.

Not that Quil would support her, but Chief Black was more lenient.

The petite psychic had great poise and self-confidence, but also a sensitive heart, Bella believed. Perhaps it came from seeing so much – seeing repercussions of decisions that had been made and then changed as well as seeing living through some great joys and pains in her own existence. Bella invited her more often than the rest to come visit.

It amused her that Alice couldn't come "until after school" on weekdays.

On the first day of November, Quil – called Old Quil, now – had been brought up to her place by the rest of the Council. He had become afflicted with what had been diagnosed as Bells Palsy. The effects were slight, but they lingered in a hesitation of speech and movement; his mind was clearly unaffected. Though they had spent much of nearly sixty years at odds with one another, Bella felt her heart wrench to see him for the first time since she had been told of his ailment. He had been born in 1929, so was seventy-four, almost seventy-five now.

"Isabella," he called with a raspy voice.

Coming out of the cabin – now outfitted with an armoire that Esme insisted upon so that she could hang her wardrobe up "properly" – Bella greeted the members of the Council. She was unsurprised to see an addition to their number, though that he was in a wheelchair did come as a bit of a shock.

"Billy Black. I know you," she said with half a smile. "How's my cousin?"

Billy was an attractive man, with long black hair untouched by gray. His face, though set in suspicious lines at the moment, was strong with good underlying bone structure. He had had, she remembered, a wife named Sarah who had died. Twin daughters and a young son, Jacob, remained. "Your cousin?"

"Charlie Swan. I understand he's a friend of yours?"

"You met him at the diner... That was you, wasn't it?"

She shrugged. "I tried to earn my way – at least until you arrived."

He shifted in his chair and continued to stare balefully at her. "You just stay away from Charlie."

"That was my intention," Bella assured him gently. Then, she looked up to meet the eyes of the other members of the Tribal Council. "Would you like to come in? I've got an extra chair, since I've acquired new neighbors."

Quil snorted, Thomas smiled crookedly and Harry Clearwater just shook his head. "We just wanted to come and tell you formally about Billy. Figured he'd be safe, by now."

"Safe from turning into a wolf? I hope so," she said with a sigh. "Nothing personal, Billy Black. I just heard a lot from Levi how much it hurt and you still have children who need you."

A light came to the disabled man's dark eye. "I do."

"It's something we wanted to talk to you about," Quil told her haltingly. "I'd like to sit down, if it's all the same to you."

She grinned up into his disgruntled gaze. "That's why I invited you."

Once settled on her chairs within, Quil ran a shaky hand along his jaw and then through his long, gray hair. He had allowed it to grow again, in the manner of the elders of his people, when he stopped phasing. "I think that it isn't your presence – or the presence of any single vampire – that triggers the werewolf magic. Dr. Cullen has been in town on his own and has inadvertently spent time with my grandson, Quil, among others who may be of...sensitive bloodlines. They haven't phased."

Now this was news to her and Isabella sat down on the hearth, her legs crossed, to make the men more comfortable so they would tell her more. "So I can come visit?"

"Hold on," Billy said, lifting one callused hand. "That's not what he's saying at all."

Quil's head wobbled a little before he visibly forced it to stop by the effort of his will. "He's right. It's not. I know you've had some of the Cold Ones by to visit and I know we said it was all right –"

She bounded to her feet with a speedy protest. "Quil! Please! Don't forbid me from seeing them. They're the only ones of my kind I've spent time with in almost a century!" It was true, too. From the time she had left Volterra in 1910, Bella had avoided socializing with vampires for more than a day or two at a time, in passing, on her travels. And since she had come to the Olympic Peninsula, she had killed or chased away every other vampire that she'd met.

Quil scowled up at her. "I'm not saying that, woman! Now just close your mouth and listen."

She did, crossing her arms and all but ignoring the other men in the cabin. Groups of vampires made her nervous, but every single one of these people were human and posed no threat to her, even though there were four of them. Quil wouldn't hurt her – he couldn't and he wouldn't even if he could. Billy was in a wheelchair. Chief Black and Harry Clearwater were not forceful enough to instigate an attack of any sort, she judged. It was really down to herself and Quil Ateara.

He rubbed his knees with his palms. "We phased before because we came in contact with a group of them. Five. A coven of Cold Ones. Now we've got a _coven_ here again. I just don't want them on the Rez, is all. You can see 'em. Go on to _their_ place to see them, though. Since they're here, Forks is under their protection, not ours. Not yours. And I suppose," he added with a smile in his eye, "that you have some vacation time coming."

The men stared at him but Bella laughed out loud. "Vacation? Where would I go?"

"To the Cullens, like I said. Just keep 'em off our land."

**[+]**

"Alice!"

"You're really a hard one to track down, Isabella Uley," the psychic said with a saucy smile. "But I did it anyway because I'm a hard one to stop."

They were in a library in Seattle. Bella had taken advantage of hideously wet weather to run to the city before first light, carrying a change of clothes with her, and she had outfitted herself appropriate for a college student at this time of year. In a tucked away chair with worn upholstery on the armrests, Bella quirked a brow at the smaller female and chuckled. "And you're tracking me down why?"

Alice settled herself solidly into the facing chair, smoothing her long skirt and crossing her tiny booted ankles. "Because you disappeared off the radar, that's why. Don't you like us – _me_ – anymore?" Her shining eyes widened and her bow lips pouted just a tad.

Bella rolled her eyes in much the same way as she had seen young people do on her rare hidden encounters with groups of them in the forest. "Of course I do. I've just – well..." She pressed her lips together before leaning forward a little and speaking beyond the reach of human ears. "The Council is concerned, and rightly, that having all of you – including myself – in proximity to the village and the Rez might start a new generation of werewolves to start phasing. None of them wish it on their sons or grandsons, as you might imagine, so they don't want you – any of you – within the borders." She leaned back and shrugged with one shoulder. "And I don't have a telephone to call and let you know."

"Edward's been feeling guilty, you know," Alice said in a normal conversational tone, her gaze direct. "He was afraid his intrusion back in September influenced your avoidance of the family."

Edward again. Bella decided to address the issue in the relative anonymity of the public library. "Why would anyone think Edward's presence would have such a major effect on the relationships with the rest of your coven? Family," she added when Alice frowned in annoyance. "I'm sure he's a fine fella, but –"

Alice's expression slid to a sudden, sunshine-bright smile. "Come to our house for Christmas, since we can't come to you. Come on, Isabella. When was the last time you celebrated with family?"

"Nineteen-eighty-three," Bella answered flatly. "With my husband."

Alice seemed to rally. "Well, see? Twenty years is way too long. C'mon, Bella... Please? We don't do a whole lot. Just usually a family hunt and we give each other silly presents. Sometimes, Edward plays for us and we dance."

"Plays?"

A playful grin. "Oh, yes. Edward is a wonderful pianist. And he can sing! He's better than – than Frank Sinatra!"

At that, Bella had to laugh. Far too loudly. "Such a paragon. He's like Mr. Darcy, you know?" Alice seemed about to say something but Bella held up a finger. "And I am not Lizzy Bennet."

Golden eyes were far too innocent in the elfin face. "I never said you were."

"Horsefeathers."

That set Alice off into a peal of her own laughter and the two women came to a mutual agreement to leave the library. "I'll take you back to Forks, if you're ready to return."

"I suppose. And, to be honest, I'd like to celebrate Christmas with you, Alice. But I'm –" She broke off and studied the wet Seattle skyline. "The last time I was in the midst of a group of us, aside from that time in the clearing, was in Italy. It wasn't a good time for me."

"But they let you go..."

Bella set her jaw and stepped away from the smaller woman. "No. They didn't." Her hand fluttered briefly to her side and back, where the flesh would be forever gone. Alice, with a quiet subtlety, briefly brushed her hand down Bella's back, felt the misshapen flesh, gasped and dropped her hand as if Bella's back were made of flame.

"What the _hell_, Isabella?"

"Another time, Mary Alice," she whispered, remembering what Jasper had called his wife on their first visit in this century.

"Well." Alice stepped off briskly toward her small yellow Porsche – a gift from Edward two years back – "I can understand your reluctance. How about coming anyway, and we'll start off with a hunt, so you can be with us all, but outside. And we'll set up the guest room for you and we can get cleaned up and do gifts next. I can arrange the room to make you as un-surrounded as possible." She grinned at some private thought. "And you know, Rosalie plays the piano as well, so maybe you could dance, if you want."

"I don't remember learning how. I'll just watch." _Or go home_.

Once within the tight confines of the car, Bella did her best to relax, though her limbs resisted._ She's just one. Just one. You can do this, Isabella. You can. _

"So you'll come?"

"I'll come."

"Yay! All right, now. We normally do formal for the dancing part, so do you have something?"

"Formal? No." Isabella snorted lightly as Alice revved her engine before putting the car in gear. "I have a little black dress, but that's it."

"What you wore that night we all met you?"

"That's the one."

"That's great! You looked wonderful." Alice beamed and maneuvered skillfully through the rain-shiny streets. Bella didn't drive too fast herself – she trusted her feet but not rubber tires – so she watched the world fly by outside of Alice's car.

**[+]**

"I'll be spending Christmas at the Cullens," Bella told Chief Black. Quil was feeling under the weather and hadn't come up. The cold was problematic with Quil's joints, the chief had told her. "I expect I'll be gone for a couple of days unless things go – badly."

Not having been privy to any of the wolf-memories, Thomas only nodded. "We'll be all right." He rose to his feet to pace restlessly across the small floor of her cabin while icy rain hit her roof with an irritated sound before sliding to the ground. "We don't want to keep you from regular relationships. We have legends about the Cold Ones."

"I know."

"And their mates," Thomas continued as if she hadn't interrupted. "I'm sure that one of us could not have been your true mate, Isabella." He looked at her awkwardly from under his brows, shoving his hands in the front pockets of his heavy blue jeans. "I don't mean to pry, but I see a lot more than I let on, you know? So go have a good holiday, Isabella. Merry Christmas."

A bit nonplused, Bella just stood in her cabin for a while after the chief had left her. It had never occurred to her that her social life – her life aside from her role as Protector – ever mattered to the Council. She was in many respects a hired hand, exchanging her skill and strength for a safe haven.

"Thanks," she said softly into the rain-accented quiet.

She turned, then, and prepared for a wet night's patrol.

A note, sealed in a plastic bag, was tied to a tree when she reached the southern border, where she would be starting her run. There was a lot of land to cover for one pair of legs, especially on a rain-soaked, moonless night, but this was what she did. And she did it well.

_Dear Bella,_

A quick sniff even before she read told her the firm, precise script was Edward's. His scent – sunshine and honey and something of his sire's cardamom – permeated the paper upon which he wrote.

_Dear Bella,_

_Please forgive this intrusion. I have posted a copy of this note on your usual starting point on each border, so that you should find it this evening._

_Thank you for agreeing to come celebrate Christmas with our family. I will endeavor not to be a bother to you and hope that you will not allow my presence to cause you to change your mind at the last moment. (Alice and Jasper would probably deprive me of my left hand for a week and make excuses for me at "school" were I to cause you offense in any way.)_

_Thank you for sharing with me the information you had about my family and myself. It was a gift and I have appreciated it every day. If there is ever anything I can do in reciprocity, please do not hesitate to let me know._

_Looking forward to seeing you on Christmas._

_Edward_

**[+]**

On Christmas morning, shortly after two, Bella packed a small duffle bag that had found its way to her from someone on the Council. There was enough room to include all of her cash – not a lot, but she did have some – two pairs of shoes and a two changes of clothes if she rolled them up tightly. Her undergarments were out of fashion, but she had ceased caring about them when Levi had passed away.

Then she tidied up what few things she had in her home, tucked her worn third copy of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ into her bag, and made sure the generator was empty so that there would be no accidents while she was gone.

"I'm actually nervous," she marveled, shifting uncomfortably after she had closed the door behind her. A shiver rippled under her skin. "Come on, Isabella. You can do this. You can always come back if you're upset. Remember that."

Drawing a deep breath that seemed to settle her nerves, Bella rolled up on the balls of her bare feet – she was saving her shoes for her visit – pulled her shirt evenly over her hips, smoothed her jeans and leapt into a full-out run.

No rain annoyed her this morning, no campers or hikers would be out on Christmas – especially not at this hour! – so she paid no heed to anything save the straightest line to the Cullen place. She had never been there, but Alice had given clear directions and had promised to be waiting for her.

In a matter of minutes after crossing the border, she heard, "Bella! Isabella! Over here!"

Pausing not at all, Bella oriented on the cinnamon sweetness of Alice's scent as well as her voice. "Coming!"

"I'm so glad you're here!"

They jogged the rest of the way to the Cullen house and Alice called, "Esme? She'll need that towel."

The notional "mother" of this "family" came through the sliding glass door onto the deck, where a strip of moonlight glanced spiritedly from her stony skin. "Bella, dear. So lovely to have you. And just in time for breakfast."

In spite of her unease, Bella chuckled and dropped her bag down in favor of taking the towel to wipe off her muddy feet. "Well that's good, because I have worked up an appetite."

Laughter erupted from within the rather imposing, glass-walled home and Bella took a moment to peruse it from the redwood deck upon which she stood. White clapboard came smack against the large, plate-glass windows, making the house a curious mix of antique and modern. She felt suddenly extremely out of place. Oh, she had understood that this coven was wealthy – even without the quiet explanations by Esme and Alice regarding their investments and how simple a thing it would have been to have "helped" another of their own dietary proclivities, she would have known in their clothing and accessories that money was not an object for them. Still, seeing such a huge house...! Rooms for every mated pair plus at least one guest room, there was still a large living space that she could see, and a spacious kitchen. All of this visible from the deck; who knew what she'd see should she venture inside?

"Let's get you settled in, all right?" Alice offered. Suddenly, Bella heard a huge shifting within the house. Steps heavy and light moved and doors opened. At Bella's questioning expression, Alice smiled a little. "Everyone's cleared out so you can go in and get your things put away without feeling crowded."

Dismayed, Bella opened her mouth to protest. "They don't have to –" she began.

"Hush. Anything for a guest. Come on, I'll show you your room."

The house was decorated in clean lines and light colors and looked like it came from _Architectural Digest_. Alice led her up a flight of stairs and into an airy room. "It's got an en suite bath, and there's the closet. It's not much, but I thought you might be comfortable."

"Not much?" Bella said in disbelief. "Why is there a bed?"

"For appearances. Sometimes, Carlisle might have a colleague over and I keep hoping that one of us might make human friends." A forlorn aspect fell over Alice's usually vibrant presence and Bella was possessed by the impulse to offer her a quick embrace.

"What about vampire friends?'

The tiny woman perked up immediately. "Oh! That's great, too!"

After hanging up her things and brushing her hair in addition to lacing up her sneakers, Bella was ready to go. While she had prepared herself, she heard the rest of the family, one by one, gathering in the backyard. Knowing they could hear her perfectly well, she said, "Thank you, Edward, for your note."

A silence fell before it broke in a round of chuckles and teasing. "You're - you're welcome."

She eyed herself in the bathroom mirror. She wore a black sweater and blue jeans and black sneakers. Perfect for a night hunt. It was strange to see her reflection again. Looking exactly the same – she hadn't changed at all.

"Y'all right, Bella?" Jasper called, his voice a bit closer to the house than the others'.

"Yeah. I'm coming."

In a flash, she was with them and they took off at a run. "We're going to the northeast," Emmett told her, tossing a grin across the small space that separated them. "Have you hunted up there?"

She had to laugh. "Emmett, I have lived and hunted here since 1944. I've pretty much covered it all."

"That's a long time," Carlisle offered. He ran a bit behind them, which Bella thought odd for a coven leader. "You've done remarkably well staying out of everyone's notice."

"If by everyone you mean Aro and the Volturi, well...I've met my share of bounty hunters from Volterra."

Jasper tried to apologize again. She stopped him with a laugh. "Enough, already." She put on a burst of speed – this was her home territory – and suddenly they were all exclaiming behind her. Only Edward was able to keep up, but as he promised, he kept himself at a distance.

It took until dawn for everyone to find winter feeding animals to hunt and drain and dispose of, but the time was spent for Bella with a strange amazement. Over the course of the hours, she had become more accustomed to the size of the Cullen coven and to their ease of speaking with each other and their care of her. No one crowded her, she never felt overwhelmed, and indeed she could perceive their consideration of her personal space requirements.

She dropped her shield eventually. And conducted a small experiment of her own as they ran back to the house. _Edward? Can you hear me now?_

He stumbled – actually tripped over his own feet to come to a sliding fall that ended at the trunk of a huge pine tree. Pinecones showered him and Esme, who was nearest, while Edward just gawped at her. "Was that you?"

_Yes. Just checking_. "Are you all right?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, appearing flustered and annoyed. "Warn a fellow, would you?"

He stood, brushed himself off and started running again. She pushed to catch up. _Don't be mad_.

"Not mad. Just embarrassed. Give a man his dignity, will you?"

She did remember that a man had pride so she eased off and ran the rest of the way back with Rosalie.

Back at the house, everyone stopped at the deck save for Edward, who flew into the house to clean up.

"Well?" Alice asked. "Ready?"

"Yes, I am. Thank you."

"Awesome!" Emmett called. "See you in a few."

She changed into her black dress and low heels after a quick shower. She found a contraption on the bathroom's marble vanity. "Alice? What's this?"

"A blow-dryer. For your hair."

Embarrassment washed over her; Alice made it sound so normal. Jasper's voice came next.

"You don't have to use it, Miss Bella. You just need to be comfortable."

"I'll help," Rosalie offered from the next floor up.

Then, showers started all over the house and Bella stood in something like shock, to hear the noises of so many occupants of one small piece of geography.

**[+]**

She really had nothing to offer the Cullens by way of gifts – she tried not to feel too off about that. What surprised her was when they presented her with a few wrapped items that swamped her with embarrassment. Upon unwrapping them, she was a tad relieved to find the gifts were small and practical. Books, a CD player, some music. A new sweater. A small mirror to hang on the wall. She thanked them for everything, apologized for having come empty handed, and was roundly waved off with that.

"Bella," Carlisle said, leaning against the hearth and regarding her with warm compassion. "You have allowed yourself to trust us and have joined us here for the holiday. That is a huge gift on your part and we all appreciate it."

Acceptance wafted over her like a comforting blanket and she smiled shyly at Jasper. "Well, thank you. For everything."

Before the moment became even more awkward, Edward rose to his feet and crossed to the grand piano that occupied the place of honor across the room. She curled up in the large leather chair to watch the mated couples in the coven – the family – dance to the music Edward offered them. Big band era tunes, they made Bella smile and tap her feet in a very understated way against one another.

After the end of _String of Pearls_, Rosalie called out, "My turn!" and bumped Edward from the piano bench. She promptly began to play _In the Mood_ and Edward nudged her back. The blond bombshell thought _something_ at the mindreader with a firm purpose and he rolled his eyes.

Then, he met Bella's from across the living room. "Bella. Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?"

From the obvious byplay that had just passed in front of her, Bella was not surprised by the apparently reluctant invitation. She understood proper forms, so she rose to her feet and fluffed out her hair. "Yes, thank you for asking."

He crossed to her and took her hand in his, skin touching skin –

And her world changed. Permanently and forever.

* * *

**A/N: Now, my idea of the mate bond might not be everyone's but I will share more about it in the next chapter! See you Tuesday!**


	18. Bond

**A/N: We left Bella finding her world changed when Edward's bare skin touched hers…**

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* * *

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**Chapter Eighteen: Bond**

The moment his skin touched hers, Bella felt it happen. A settling within herself, as if her dead internal organs were realigning more comfortably; as if they'd been slightly out of kilter before, but were fixed now. Her skin flashed with a once-in-existence warmth that fizzled like soda water, before soaking into her bones. The feeling was accompanied by a joy that astonished her, bubbling up from within as if from a hot spring, and then –

There was _arousal_. The need to _consummate_ the mate bond. The call of her body to his, feeling the call of his to hers. Eyes locked, they stepped unconsciously toward one another, surprise suffusing them both, lighting their eyes with shock and delight and a minute apprehension.

Bella heard a sigh and a giggle. "I did not see _this_ happening."

"We need to clear out. _Now_."

"How reinforced are these walls, Esme?'

"Oh, look at them. Aren't they sweet?"

"Jasper?"

"Yep. This is it for them. Alice? Sugar? I really, _really_ need..."

Bella heard all of that, her mind kept it within her memory, but she didn't register any of the words. Only barely took note, in fact, of the closing of three doors and one window and the revving of a car engine.

And the laughter. _That_ she heard and it made her smile, for it echoed within herself.

"Edward..."

"Isabella... I didn't know. I've seen, but I didn't _know_."

"Me, either. Oh, my." Her life with Levi tumbled through her mind and she closed her eyes against a strange melancholy. "He knew this, he knew what he had had and he – he loved me anyway."

Though a brief irritation flashed in Edward's shining golden eyes, he slid his arms around her as naturally as breathing. Her own arms lifted up to encompass him in the closest embrace she had shared with anyone since the autumn of 1984. The hard planes of his body pressed against the curves of her own and she felt right, there. As if her body was as pliable as it needed to be. His hands ghosted up and he froze.

"Bella... What happened? Was it – him? Your, your husband?"

She heard the effort he was making not to shout, could smell the increase in venom in his breath and tried her best to understand that suddenly, Edward Masen Cullen was not just part of the neighboring coven but also – amazingly – her mate. He was naturally going to be angry about what happened and his first instinctive reaction was to blame it on the natural enemy of their kind.

"No, not ever. He never hurt me."

"Who?"

She sighed and rested her forehead against his chest. "Aro and Alec of the Volturi, about a century ago."

Edward tensed, his fingers digging initially into her flesh before he winced and apologized and pressed his lips to her hair. And that's when the yearning became almost a live thing within her body. A demanding, insistent _need_. More powerful than hunger, stronger than her own will, it pressed her, pressed out to him, pressed in from him.

Clutching at him, she tried to climb inside his body, to become that part of him the bond said that she was. She had seen this happen, once in Volterra and once after arriving in America, while she was still making her way to Chicago. A quick meeting had attracted another nomadic vampire and they had shaken hands and –

Bella had giggled before running off on her own, leaving the newly mated pair behind her, already half-naked and panting.

Her own mate's breath was coming heavier now. "Bella... I don't want –"

"What? What don't you want?" That he didn't want _her_ never occurred to her; they were mated. This was what happened to their kind.

His hands moved again, one to her hips and one to almost wrap around her ribs. She was locked to him on every possible plane. It felt perfectly right for them; she fit him and he fit her and all that remained was for her to tilt her head just so –

His lashes brushed her skin as he closed his eyes. His words came to her on a breath, whispered against the skin of her temple. "You don't even like me... I don't want you to have to do this."

"I'm your mate. You're mine," she added on a breathy growl that made him groan and press into her more firmly. "I've never felt like this."

"Not even with –?"

"No..."

He swallowed, hard. "I want you. I think I love you. I think I have since the moment I saw you in the clearing." His confessions were made in a staccato voice, as if dragged out over a ridged road. "I – I don't want you to feel like you have to –"

She tried to shake her head and smile, but when she did, her lips brushed his and she was lost. His wide lips slid over and possessed hers, his moan rumbling up from his chest, making her tingle and _want_ and need. Slipping, sliding, kneading, before his tongue teased and she allowed it and for a moment – for a brief, odd moment – her mouth wondered where the heat was, the inferno she had experienced the last time she had explored a man's mouth with her own and let him do the same.

But then, it was all Edward. He scooped her up and seemed almost to fly as he brought her up to his room where everything smelled like him. The morning sun caught frost on the trees outside, reflecting even more light to dance on his skin, on hers, as it was revealed handspan by eager handspan.

Consumed by the compelling need to fulfill the mate bond, they never noticed.

**[+]**

The sun lifted into the sky, hid behind clouds, and still they were not sated. Darkness fell and – in the midst of laughing because of what they had done to Edward's bed – Bella heard Jasper outside say, "Uh, no. Not quite yet."

Edward rolled his eyes, which had been darkened by the mating lust but were now bright as amusement danced in them, and called out, "Should we continue this elsewhere?"

Bella gasped and curled against his long, lean body in embarrassment. "Yeah, maybe we should. Maybe we could go back to my cabin. Surely Chief Black would not begrudge me privacy with my mate."

Edward rolled to his back, taking her along as they could not bear, yet, _not_ to be touching one another. The bond was still too fresh. "You're not obligated to him anymore. You're one of us, now."

Troubled by that, Bella tried to sit up, still in contact with him, but not at all points. _Can you reach that blanket?_ she thought at him.

Oh, they had enjoyed his ability to slip into her mind over the past several hours. When she allowed it.

His long arm and agile fingers reached unerringly for the dark blanket and tucked it around her before he skimmed her bare skin under it. "What name would you take? I mean, if we were to do as my siblings do and pose as single people at, maybe, college or something?"

The prospect both alarmed and delighted her. "I've never been to college..."

"Would you want to be Bella Milano, as you told Jasper when you first met him?"

"Swan," she answered immediately, thinking of Geoffrey and Helen and Charlie and his wife, Renée. "I'm also a Swan." She comprehended from his sheer avoidance of her married name that being a Uley would not be what he would wish for her. She understood that – it was a name she had borne with pride for a long time, but it wasn't who she was. "I'm Bella," she told her mate. "And I don't know my last name, but sometimes, I used to think that maybe it might have been Swan, back when I was human."

"Bella Swan..."

She smiled into his eyes and leaned over to let her lips linger over his. "I like it. I think I'll tell the Chief when I go back. Do you have his phone number? I could call from here."

Edward chuckled and her body moved up and down on his as he did so. "Going to offer your resignation?"

"What? No! I'm their Protector. We have a Treaty." Confused, she braced herself on her forearms and studied his face. "Edward, I can't just abandon them. It's dangerous. This place is like a magnet for our kind. I can't leave them unprotected."

Edward set his jaw. She could hear it. "Sweetheart. They survived a long time without protection."

"People died. Were _murdered_. The legends tell of it. And only when the old ones resumed their wolf forms were they able to defend the tribe." She had heard the legends often and knew them well. "There's the tale of Taha Aki," she said, preparing to share with him what she knew.

He looked as if he'd scoff but at her quick inhale, he sighed instead and tugged her back down to nestle utterly against him. "I know. But it happens all over, you know. We can't protect them all."

"I know it. But I have to protect _them_. I promised. We have a Treaty," she said again.

"Uh, guys? Y'all all right in there?" Jasper's clear voice reached them easily, though he was out in the back, not even on the decking. "Not to intrude on you, honest. Just thinking that if you were going to leave, we could spend the day here, you know?"

"Solitude would be nice," Bella murmured against a solid pectoral.

Edward chuckled. "Give us a minute," he called to his coven-mate. His _brother_. In that time exactly, the two of them were up and dressed. She was relieved that he had been gentleman enough to slide her dress off properly without ripping the fabric. It made the prospect of walking out of Edward's bedroom and seeing his coven-family so much less uncomfortable.

The rest of the family did arrive, though, during that minute and they were all waiting for them at the foot of wide staircase. "Welcome to the family, Isabella," Carlisle said as soon as she and Edward appeared, hand in hand, at the top of the stairs. The coven leader's smile was so broad as to seem to almost split his face. Esme's as well, her eyes shining as if Edward were her actual son and this was his wedding day.

Jasper caught her eye and winked and she remembered to toss up her shield specifically to keep him at bay. He did a little head-swagger movement and grinned up at her. "Too late, Miss Bella. I caught that. Thank you for making my brother so happy. It really makes my existence easier."

Rosalie snorted and Edward ran his free hand through his hair, looking embarrassed. The rest all called their congratulations, too, as she and Edward descended but when Esme moved to initiate what appeared would be a group embrace, Alice held up a hand. "Not yet, guys. Give her some time, huh?"

"Thank you," Bella said softly.

Edward looked a little strained for a moment and exchanged a quick glance with Carlisle before he shrugged.

Then Esme, not to be entirely repressed it seemed, clasped her hands together. "Bella, dear. I want to redecorate Edward's room since it's now going to be for both of you. We'll have to sit down and talk paint and furniture, all right?'' She cocked her head. "I'm thinking simple, but not as stark as it is now."

Bella blinked. "Um, can we talk about it later?" She felt a growing need to wrap her arms around Edward and let his scent cover her, fill her.

Esme nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, of course. We'll see you soon!"

It was still dark and cold, but not as cold as before since the cloud cover tended to keep a scant trace of the sun's warmth within the air's ambience. Still holding hands, though Bella was holding on to her shoes, they fled the Cullen home and took off at a run back toward her cabin. _ I'll make it right with Chief Black tomorrow. _

"I thought you didn't have a bed," Edward said, his smile rakish as they moved in near silence through the pines.

"I don't. But – we don't need one..." She opened her mind to him with images of what they had been up to, not long before, on a floor.

His laugh was relaxed and Bella reveled in this – the joy of laughing with her mate. Her mate. He was a wonderful lover, attuned to her every response and heedful of her silently expressed preferences. When they made love, there had been no awkwardness of any sort and he had not compelled her to remain with the family either. He understood her.

It was almost like imprinting and she couldn't wait to learn more about him and their bond and maybe patrol with him on the borders. That would make two of them, the Cold Ones...but... Edward was her _mate_. Surely the Tribal Council would understand.

She was so familiar with the scents and sounds of these woods that the slightest aberration caught her entire attention, mate bond or no mate bond. She stopped abruptly, stumbling a little before Edward caught her up against himself.

"Bella?"

"Shh." She held up a hand and paced slowly forward, away from the beguiling fragrance of her mate. _A stranger has been through here. Wait._ No blood scent reached her nose, so perhaps it was just a nomad, passing through. As Edward had said, they couldn't protect every human.

Without even seeking Edward's input, Bella cast about for the freshest line of the scent, to determine which way the vampire had been traveling. She followed the freshest and it led further into the Reservation; closer to her cabin.

_Come on!_ she thought, suddenly terrified. She didn't wait for him to follow but ran as fast as her feet would fly. _There!_ The scent intensified and she picked up on another familiar scent. Filled with dread and a pending, horrible sorrow, Bella didn't stop as she passed her cabin. The scents were in tandem.

And they were first accented, then covered by blood. The blood of Thomas Black, Chief of the Quileute Nation.

"No!"

Behind her, Edward called her name. Her mate. Her _mate_ called her name. The pull of the bond slowed her down and she came to a halt only with reluctance. He hadn't _made_ her stop, but the bond was making her ache, now. She was not touching him and she needed to touch him. He reached for her, his arms encasing her, comforting and soothing. Panic took a few steps back.

"Thank you."

"Tell me," he insisted.

She thought hard and opened her mind and imagined what had happened. Her own guilt and despair darkened the scenes she shared with Edward and his hold tightened before relaxing.

"I don't hear a heartbeat," Edward said after a moment.

"Me either. I – I'm scared. I failed, Edward. I failed them!"

Edward held her a little away from her, his sharply-planed face tender but serious. "I'll follow, if you want. To take care of the situation. You need to be safe."

Heart aching in her self-reproach, she cupped his face with her hands. "So do you. And this is my job. We'll go together."

The darkness of the forest beyond the cabin beckoned. Hand in hand, they answered, running but not too fast. There was no life to save now, and that knowledge crushed her even as she ran with her mate.

Maybe it was because she was mated that this didn't hurt as much as she thought it might when they held hands. Maybe it was their bond that braced her without effort. She didn't know – she only knew that if he weren't touching her, she would be raging like a wild thing, tracking the vampire and rending him limb from limb and – yes.

"I'm going to find him. And I'm going to burn his head _last_."

Edward didn't even miss a step as he heard her vow. Instead, he gripped her hand harder. "Not if I get to him first."

"It's not your job," she insisted, half-wanting to pull ahead of him, half-wanting to keep connected to him.

He put on a renewed burst of speed and, from up ahead, the scents flowed over them like the Quillayute current. A nomad, dressed in black leather trousers and a brown leather jacket, was in the process of smoothing the hair of her victim back from his head. The nomad was female.

"Such a shame, really," she said conversationally before turning with a feral grin to meet Bella's eyes. "You're late. He had a unique bouquet."

"Bouquet?" Edward retorted, sliding his hand from Bella's and moving at a careful distance to get closer to the nomad without making her too wary. "What, are you a sommelier?"

"A what?" Bella asked, wondering what on Earth her mate was doing.

Edward smiled thinly. "A wine connoisseur or steward, if you prefer." He was focusing and Bella wondered what he could see in the nomad's mind. "She likes to drink from men of a certain age."

The reminder jolted Bella so that the rage filled her anew and she lunged at the nomad. "No! He was my friend!"

"Bella, no!"

But she did not heed him this time. _This is what I do!_ she thought at him with a fierce, passionate pulsation. _I protect the people_. But she had failed. Failed miserably. Guilt and fury powered her limbs as she hit the nomad in the small of her leather-covered back. "He was my friend," she growled again, using her teeth to rip and hands to tear as the sound of screeching metal split the night.

Edward threw himself into the fight, pinning the nomad to the ground by one leg. "No! She's mine!" Bella roared, the sound coming from her heart and gut. "No!" The nomad had little sense of warfare, seeming mostly amazed that the small vampire had come at her tooth and claw, as it were.

Her eyes were still opened wide in question when Bella tore off her head.

"Light a fire," Bella demanded of Edward while she systematically removed the rest of the vampire's limbs. The smell of venom – vampire sweet and tinged with lemon – almost covered the lingering blood scent of Thomas Black. Blood which dripped uselessly to the earth.

Edward said nothing, but gathered wood in a distant manner, his face giving away no emotion. Bella held up the nomad's head, directing its gaze to the rapidly-growing wood pile. "See this?" she hissed near the nomad's venom-coated ear. "The last thing you will see will be your body burning."

"Isabella, please," Edward said with a soft pleading.

"She has to die."

Edward did not dispute that. "Fire? Do you have a match or lighter?"

"I didn't bring one, since I wasn't on patrol," she admitted, feeling stupid. _Thomas! I'm so sorry! _she mourned silently.

With a slight grimace, Edward actually checked the ripped and smelly garments of the nomad, finding a bright blue lighter in a pocket of the jacket that still draped about the limbless torso in a macabre manner. "Here. Did you want to do it yourself?" He met her eyes, his own sad and resigned.

Still holding on to the matted brown hair of the nomad, Bella nodded. She caught the lighter that he tossed and knelt next to the carefully-arranged wood to set it alight. Edward tossed pine needles and twigs and the blaze slowly ate away at the wood. With grim determination, ignoring Thomas' drained, cooling body, she tossed one limb in, then another, feeling minute shuddering in the head she still held.

It was only when the torso was tossed into the flames that Bella added the head.

"Never again," she promised to the forest, the trees, the people who didn't even know this had happened. "Never again."

"Bella..."

Blinking venom out of her eyes, she told her mate, "I'm sorry you had to see that. It – it wasn't what I usually do. I was just so –"

He was at her side immediately, arms about her as they watched together to make sure the nomad burned to ash. Aromatic curls of smoke tinted the night air. "What you usually do?"

"I have done this before," she snapped, angry and mourning. But now, Edward was all around her, easing her heart and mind. She relaxed into him. "It's better with you here."

"I'm sorry. I wanted to protect you from her. You're not hurt," he stated, as if he knew that she wasn't.

She turned a little and caught his eye. "Thank you. Thank you for letting me manage her on my own."

He nodded slowly. "I don't understand it though, Bella. I – when you told me to let you handle it, I didn't want to, but I did. It was as if I felt your need for me to let you have your way in this and that made me... back off, you know?"

"Like when you called to me earlier and I slowed down and waited for you."

Their conversation and proximity drew them in tighter contact with one another so that they were pressed against each other, their breaths mingling intimately. "I'm not used to this," she whispered, her fingers sliding up to furrow through his hair.

The fire crackled and sparked and hissed in the winter chill. He pulled her even closer. "Me either. But...Bella...I –"

His lips brushed her skin and she sighed. "Yeah." Then, she inhaled deeply, wanting to draw her mate's scent deeper inside her body. But she smelled – "Thomas!"

The grief returned to the forefront of her mind and she shuddered in Edward's arms. "Come on. We have to – have to take him back to my cabin. Clean him up. I need to get in touch with his family, with Quil," she rasped, pulling away from Edward and moving around the fire to Thomas Black's body. "Billy might be chief, now. Maybe. I'm not sure how they'll do that, to be honest."

"Let me, Bella," Edward offered, flashing to her side.

"If you would," she asked, bending to pick up the chief, "do something about the fire and ashes? I – I need to handle this alone."

"You'll never be alone again."

The statement surprised her and she nodded with a jerky motion and stilled, half a step from where she'd started. She studied Thomas' pale face, the knowledge that she could see in the set of his mouth. "He never screamed. Look."

"He was a brave man. He met a – a coven of vampires."

Her smile was weak. "I didn't think he was, at first. But he grew into it. He was a compassionate man. I'll miss him. I already do..."

"I know. But I'm with you. We all are, Bella. _We're_ your family, now."

She shook her head and felt venom sting in her eyes again. "I can't abandon them, Edward. They're my family, too."

She ran, then, grief making her chest ache while she bore her burden. "I won't leave them unprotected, Chief Black. I promise."

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**A/N: More on the LJ Summers' version of The Mate Bond in chapter nineteen…! **

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**See you Friday!**


	19. Treaty

**A/N: ****Thank you for trusting me to take you so far!**

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**Chapter Nineteen: Treaty**

"How come I never understood this part before?" Edward was pacing the border, hands moving restlessly through his hair, into and out of the front pockets of his jeans, clasping and unclasping. "I never picked up on this from any of you." Almost accusingly, he glared at his sister.

Alice leaned against a thick-trunked pine and shifted a pinecone from hand to hand, making a constant clicking sound. "Honestly, Edward, it's not like we purposefully kept it from you. You, out of all of us, have the best idea of each of our private thoughts and reactions." _And don't think I don't know you appreciate that, hm?_ "It's just that for Jasper and I, we'd grown past the whole immersion phase by the time we found you."

"Yes, well, the others never exhibited this behavior."

Alice stopped tossing the pinecone. "Are you sure?"

"I remember everything, Alice. I was there when Carlisle changed Esme. When Emmett touched Rosalie." He stopped to take a deep breath, remembering the moonstruck looks on their faces. "I remember everything," he repeated, his voice more tame as he continued. "The constant need to be in physical contact – I expected that. The...the..._need_..." His voice drifted, embarrassment nearly palpable about him.

His sister smirked. "Yeah. So what is it that's got you so upset?"

He angled another glare at her. "What the hell happened to my free will? It's like I have to – heed her, even if I am worried about it. Like when she attacked the nomad that killed the chief. She told me to back off and I – I did. I didn't want to, but I did. How could a bond meant to _strengthen_ push me away from her when she was in danger?"

"Was she?"

"In danger?"

"Yes." Alice was clearly trying to make a point. "Or were you just thinking she was because it was a fight?"

Edward's growl rumbled out from his chest. "She's my mate. I'm supposed to protect her."

Alice pushed off from the tree, tossing the pinecone negligently over her shoulder. "And you will, when she needs it. But clearly, she's used to doing this all on her own, Edward. Give her some credit."

Edward snorted a laugh in a rapid change of mood. "I'd love to. I want to open a card for her and put her on my bank account and –"

"And what?"

"She won't leave the Reservation. She won't even come live with us. With me. How do I provide for her?" He stopped his restless movements, jamming his fists in his pockets and staring at the moonlit clouds. "It's like I can't even offer – something won't let me, you know?"

"I know. Give it time." Alice wrapped a companionable arm around his waist. "She may be one of us but she's lived with _them_ for a long time."

"Damned dogs."

**[+]**

Edward held Bella's hand as they perched thirty-seven feet from the ground – the closest vantage point they could have to Chief Thomas Black's funeral. "The man in the wheelchair is Billy Black, right?"

"Yes."

"He reminds me of Ephraim."

Bella nodded, her long hair slipping forward over her shoulders as she did so. She was holding on to the trunk of the tree with her other hand, but Edward worried that she'd slip anyway. There was frost up in the branches. He edged nearer to her, needing to feel her in his embrace. She relaxed into his side, a soft sigh escaping her throat. "Thank you. Thank you for being here."

"I'm your mate. Where else would I be?" Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, he continued to report on the thoughts of those who were getting out of their cars or off their motorcycles at the Council Hall. "Harry Clearwater is thinking that Billy might not want to be chief after his father."

"Isn't it hereditary?"

"Yes. But if Black refuses, the title might pass to Quil Ateara." Edward shook his head, not sure how he felt about that. "On the one hand, from what I'm gleaning, this would be favored because he's so old and well-respected. On the other, his age is a concern because he might pass away at any time and there'll be a problem finding a new chief. Jacob, Billy's son and Thomas' grandson, is too young."

Shooting him a glance, Bella confirmed this. "He is. He's only a teenager. Fourteen years old, I think. I, um, got him a bike when he was five."

"What?"

"I get all of their sons and grandsons bikes when they're five. It's my way of – of being involved, Edward."

He felt a smile tug at his mouth. "You are incredible, Bella Swan."

After the funeral, a lone figure came limping out of the Hall. A blanket was wrapped around his shoulders and he walked with a cane carved with the impressions of wolves. Bella drew in a quick, sharp breath and leapt from branch to branch, dropping the final feet to the ground. She landed, as was her usual pattern, with an awkwardness that Edward found strangely endearing.

"I do love you, you know," he murmured to her before following her in one long leap, carefully angled to miss the branches on the way to the earth.

"And I'm yours." She put her hand in his and squeezed. "Please, trust me. Let me talk to him. You're not supposed to be here."

He pushed out a harsh breath and nodded, but kept his hold firm on her. "I'll do my best." But already, half a dozen things he wanted to say to the old man with the long gray hair and dignified demeanor didn't seem quite as necessary to vocalize.

Alice had said something to him just before Bella had returned from informing Quil of the death of the chief.

. . .

"_You're struggling with it because the two of you aren't walking together right now. Usually a mated pair will follow the road of one or the other. In my mind, I've seen it happen for you eventually. I just don't know when. Until she makes the decision to do that, you're going to be jumping from path to path. That's why this is so hard. Jasper followed me. Esme followed Carlisle. Emmett followed Rosalie. But Isabella isn't ready to follow and neither are you. I can't always see her decisions, you know. She's determined to do what she sees as her duty. This grew very strong in my mind when the nomad killed the chief."_

"_So we're always going to be like this?" Edward had felt as if he were drowning in a strange whirlpool. Tugged under by the conflict he knew existed still between himself and his mate, but energized and strengthened by her very presence. He needed her, but it was frightening and unknown and her shield only allowed him to see what she chose._

"_Not always. Just until you can both decide on one path to walk together."_

. . .

Maybe this was that path. Edward could only hope a resolution would be reached. Funerals were for closure, weren't they?

"Quil Ateara."

"Isabella. Is this him?" The old one eyed him up and down and Edward found himself standing a bit straighter and, oddly, wishing he had worn a suit and tie instead of the heavy jeans and dark sweater he had chosen.

Isabella extended her free hand to the man who was the last living one from the time Edward had been here in the 20th Century. Quil had only been seven years of age, then. "Yes. This is Edward Masen Cullen, from the Treaty."

"And he's your mate?"

"As I said...the other day...yes. He's like my imprint."

Quil's dark eyes sharpened and his spine stiffened. Edward listened carefully to his thoughts. _Imprint. Huh. Not to have children, that's for sure. Damned Cold Ones are dead._ "How do you mean?"

Bella pressed her lips together briefly. "Levi – Levi told me how it was, with imprints. I know you married your imprint."

"Yes..." Edward saw the image of a young woman wearing a white gown, viewed as if through a mist.

Quil coughed and his eyes narrowed. _You. You're the mindreader I remember. Keep your eyes away from my imprint. _

"I'll do my best."

"Humph." Then, to Bella, the aged one said, "All right, so this is your mate. Husband?"

"Our kind don't generally marry." Bella smiled. "Levi knew this."

Edward would have contradicted her, but Quil's lips broadened in a smile. "I do remember a day that _one_ did, old as I am."

Against his will, Edward was drawn into Quil's memory to see Bella standing with the man Edward remembered as Levi Uley. He saw them make promises to each other and to defend the land. And he saw Levi put his arms around Bella...

With a blown breath, he yanked his awareness from Quil's memory. Again.

The old one lifted his brows into his tanned, craggy forehead and regarded Edward with some annoyance. "Well? What did you expect? I was there." He sighed and leaned more heavily on his walking stick. "All right so you have a mate. Thomas has been murdered, Isabella. What did you want?"

A flurry of sad images went through his mind then. Thomas Black's drained corpse. Bella's distraught features. The memories of others, a long time ago...

Bella inhaled deeply, her back straight and proud as she put one arm around Edward. "I want to have permission for Edward Cullen to be with me on the Reservation. He's my mate. Like my imprint. Being apart right now is...hard, for us. For me to best serve the Nation as Protector, I need my mate with me."

"I'm only one voice on the Council..."

Bella cocked her head up at him and smiled. Memories danced in her eyes and Edward wasn't sure if he wanted to know them or not. "Maybe, but you're the oldest, young man."

Surprisingly, Quil Ateara tossed back his head and laughed until he couldn't breathe. Finally recovering, he nodded. "All right, Isabella. I'll put it before the Council. Billy isn't going to like it though," he warned. Edward saw his head wobble and the immediate cursing of his weakness in the Elder's thoughts. Quil took a series of quick breaths, grimaced and shook his head purposefully. Thoughts went through his mind of previous discussions with Billy Black, including a near-shouting match about having a Cold One even trying to fill the place of the Mighty Spirit Warriors of legends. The answer had been that the Cold One was an effective Protector and the Tribe had reason to be grateful to her.

_Billy, eyes red-rimmed and wild: But she didn't save my father!_

_Quil: She had just met her mate. _

_Billy spun his chair around and wheeled himself next to his son and one of his daughters, who had come back to the Rez for the funeral._

Quil cleared throat and caught Edward's eye to say silently,_ And you. You do anything stupid and I'll set you on fire myself, hear?_

"I do sir. And thank you."

_And I don't give a flaming vampire's ass, but you should marry her. I saw the rings on the others in your...your coven. Your group. You best do right by Isabella. Or you will regret it._

Oddly enough, coming from the stern thoughts of the old fellow, the threat didn't feel empty in the least.

**[+]**

"A what?"

Edward held Bella on his lap, his arms around her. "A cellular telephone." They were in their room – she was still calling it _his_ room, though Esme had brought in some Bella-centric accent pieces and draperies for the windows. There was also a new bed, which had been ordered and installed with no little fanfare.

Bella held the small, red device as if it were a species of breakable animal that might urinate on her. "I've used the pay phones in town..." she said slowly. "I've seen people use cellular phones in the movies and on patrol, but... Edward? I don't think I need this. You keep it."

He nuzzled her hair and breathed in her heady scent. "Sweetheart. I have to go to school. I don't know about you, but I think I'll be ready to peel off my skin to get back to you. Before first period."

"Don't go, then. Stay." She tossed the phone to the bed and slid around on his lap so that she straddled him. Not at all delicately. He responded eagerly to her silent persuasion.

For a few moments.

"Edward! Come on!"

"This is ridiculous," he muttered, knowing Rosalie would hear him. "I'm newly mated."

Bella sighed, smiled and rolled off his lap. "It's not like you _need_ another high school diploma..."

He tucked in his shirt more neatly and tossed on a cable knit sweater with speed and grace. "It's part of what we do, to stay a family and live as normal a life as we can, Bella. You could join us, you know. Get a diploma of your own?"

She shook her head, her hair falling in beguiling disarray about her bare shoulders. "I don't know how you pass for fourteen, honey, but I couldn't do it. College...I'd like that, but how can I leave here? This has been my home for almost sixty years and they need me."

They had talked about her duties more than once since their Christmas Day mating. So far, the only compromise they had arranged was that she had spent the time in between patrols divided between her home and the Cullens'. He reached around her to retrieve the cell phone. "Look. Just hang on to it, okay? Push this button and then this one to call me. I'll answer."

"Edward!"

"Coming!" To Bella, he whispered. "Be safe. I'll see you after school."

She snorted softly. "You too. I'll miss you."

Somehow, he tore himself from her.

**[+]**

Quil Ateara was seated at Bella's new square table – a "mating present" from Esme, flanked by the other members of the Tribal Council. In the Elder's mind, scenes flashed of times long ago. Levi and Ephraim and Old Quil – a name this Quil knew was his but one he did not use himself – were in this very same cabin. And then other images of this cabin with a good deal more furniture. And laughter.

_Get out of my head if you don't like it_. And the image of Edward's current facial expression: irritated discontent.

Edward stiffened briefly before taking Bella's hand in his. He was immediately more at ease. Just in time for Bella to squeeze his fingers and speak.

"Thank you for coming. I know that this is an awkward thing for you." She pressed her lips together and bowed her head to Billy Black. "I especially thank _you_. Thank you for coming and agreeing to do this."

Edward did not need to read Black's mind to know he was only here under duress. All the grieving man said, though, was, "Sure, sure." Memories of Grandfather Ephraim flitted through Billy's thoughts. Memories of the older Black saying, "Sure, sure," in just the same way.

Quil's mind went there too, briefly. Human minds made chains out of the most trivial of things. Here, the Elder's thoughts went from Ephraim saying, "Sure, sure," to Levi Uley saying it to even hearing Isabella using that term by a fire, once. Edward knew he himself had picked up patterns of speech from Carlisle and he was sure humans did the same thing, though slang changed over the years. Someday, perhaps the young one Bella had mentioned, Jacob, would be saying that same phrase.

Only a moment had passed since Bella had spoken. Edward regarded the Council members with some degree of trepidation. "I appreciate it, too. I know that my mate," he said, making sure to use a term that everyone understood and was comfortable with, "will find it easier not to have to request permission whenever we wish to be together here."

Harry Clearwater, a man of quiet good sense in his thoughts, cleared his throat. "Our primary concern is the safety of the people of the Reservation and of Forks. The Treaty maintains that you – the Cullens – are responsible for their safety now that you're here."

"Yes. With Carlisle in town, it is easiest." Edward said, remembering the prior meetings on this subject. Though Forks had been a rustic logging town back in the 1930's, the boundaries were similar. "And, too, my siblings and I are in school at Forks High."

Harry's round face scrunched. His thoughts imagined a bloodbath in the cafeteria there, but he refrained from saying anything. Instead, he smoothed his features and tapped the plain, handwritten paper on the table. "And your mate? Will she be there, too?"

"My Treaty is for the Quileute lands and holdings," Bella said. Edward felt the subtle warm pressure of her mind as she lifted her shield and tossed a thought in his direction. _Remember, Edward, I have negotiated before with them_. "I have no plans to change that. With Edward helping here, when he can and is able, then there will be more protection for you, not less. Forks will still have the other six members of the coven."

"You're attending school?" Billy said, his tone sarcastic as he drummed his fingers on the table top.

Edward nodded. "It helps maintain the façade. I will join Bella here, though, as I can."

"You must remain hidden," Ateara insisted. "Isabella doesn't go to Forks; she might be remembered."

Edward reined in his immediate annoyance. They treated her like a hired hand. Like a servant. She was his mate, damn it! Still, he took a quick breath and said smoothly, "I can go, though. Don't you think it's about time she was able to live like anyone else?"

Billy's temper flared. "She's a Cold One. She has been granted freedom to live here since my grandfather's day. She's been aided by the Council and befriended by her natural enemy. I think we've let her live pretty damn well!"

Indignation sparked Edward's banked fury. "Let her live? _Let her?_ She is not your hired girl! She's my mate!"

Quil Ateara pushed himself slowly to his feet and actually glared down at Billy. Old though he was, the Elder was still as tall as Edward was himself. "Enough, Billy. I know you're hurting, but Isabella has been a _friend_ of our people. A friend to our sons and grandsons. A friend." _You watch it, young man, I'm trying to settle him down. Control your temper!_

Abashed but still angry, Edward nodded shortly.

Leaning forward and bracing his large and wrinkled hands on the table, Quil continued. "I have known you, Isabella, for a long time. I know we haven't always gotten along, but we've managed, eh?"

Bella quirked a brow. "Oh, so I get a turn now? Thank you. Yes, Quil, we have. I am not asking for anything more than I have, except that I want to share it with my mate. In turn, he will provide another set of eyes on the borders. I miss Thomas, too," she went on with a soft look at Billy's ire-set expression, "and I am so sorry I was not patrolling that day. But Quil gave me leave to go, and I did. And I'm not sorry I was gone, nor am I at all sorry to have Edward with me. I appreciate your willingness to add him to the Treaty."

"As do I," Edward ground out. "Ideally, I would probably have taken Bella away with me for a while. Our kind tend to need...time to adjust to a new mating." Bella, still holding his hand, squeezed it and smiled intimately at him. Edward pulled her in against his side and held her with his arm around her. "But she is committed to you, and to your protection, and I am committed to my family. We're doing the best we can."

Billy looked away, clearly distancing himself. Harry smiled pleasantly and nodded and Quil settled himself back into his chair before saying, "Fine. So let's get this signed and I can get back to a place with heat for my old bones. It's cold." His pose as a cantankerous old man was more than half pretended, but Edward could see the image of a heavy blanket and roaring fire in a small living room and he could understand how that would be more comfortable for an aging human.

Without further ado, the Treaty was signed that made Isabella Swan Uley and Edward Anthony Masen Cullen Protectors of the Quileute Nation. Boundaries were redefined and hands were shaken.

And as soon as the men left, Bella started to laugh. "You were wonderful!" Her smile lit the cabin more completely than the fire in the hearth. "Thank you so much. You don't know how much better I feel."

"I guess I'm on your path. For now," Edward conceded.

Her arms came about him. "I love you, Edward Masen."

Joy coursed through him. He had been prepared to wait for those words, knowing that they had really only just begun to get to know one another, even though they were mates. With a grin of his own, he lifted her so that their faces were level. "And I love you."

One thing led to another and there was one additional crack to the wall of the old cabin before they agreed they should share the new Treaty with the rest of the family. She rolled the paper up carefully, treating it as a valuable artifact. Edward forbore reminding her that they could easily scan the document into his Mac computer for safekeeping. She still wasn't attuned to technology. He hadn't persuaded her to trade her VHS player up for a DVD player, even.

Hand in hand, in the fading light they ran with light feet all the way to the Cullen's home on the outskirts of Forks. Warm lights beckoned and welcomed as if the house itself knew what news they had to share.

Bella grinned over at him as they leapt the river. "Alice! You here?" she called, her voice buoyant with the relief she still felt.

_Edward! _

He heard his name from six different mental voices and halted just as he and Bella reached the redwood decking. "What?" his mate asked, her happiness erased from her voice. At his silence, she turned to the house and listened likewise.

_Edward. We've heard from the Volturi. They're coming._

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**A/N: Off topic: There is a Fandom Gives Back charity compilation being put together to support AUTISM AWARENESS. My younger son is autistic so this is a fundraiser near to my heart. I am planning on contributing to this compilation and want YOUR input to know what you'd like to read. Please vote in the poll on my FFn profile page - thanks! **


	20. Phase

**A/N: Thanks to SagaDevotee who shakes her finger at me until I make her swoon. Also thanks to sirthopas, melolabel and mostlyalurker who gave me good but conflicting advice, reminding me that, in the end, I have to figure out my words all by myself. :)**

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**Chapter Twenty: Phase**

_My dear Carlisle,_

_I have heard, old friend, that you have returned to the Pacific Northwest. For someone of your...proclivities...and a wish to move about in the world of our prey, this is arguably a fine point of relocation._

_However, I wished to inform you of a possible problem in that area. I would be highly indebted to you were you to assist me in locating a dangerous – deceptive and dangerous – female who destroyed one of the Guard in cold blood. Her name is Isabella. I believe she was going by Milano at one time. She has allied herself with Children of the Moon: our enemies. She is a danger to our kind, Carlisle. She has burnt agents of mine who were to have brought her back to answer for her crimes. She has constructed elaborate ruses to endeavor to convince me of her own destruction._

_I was not fooled, of course._

_You have with you one Jasper Whitlock, a veteran of the Southern Vampire Wars that the Guard had to quell not long ago. He would be just the one to take care of Isabella, for he has met her before._

_Please consider me to be in his debt and yours for seeing to this matter for me. In this day and age, all I would ask is a simple handshake of confirmation._

_Thank you for your continued friendship._

_~Aro di Volterra_

. . .

**[+]2005[+]**

"Come here, Douglas. Look, I know I smell funny, but it's spring and I know you're hungry. So come on." Bella shook out the seeds she had peeled with gloved hands. Seeds from the Sitka pine were favorites with this particular squirrel, she had found. Over the decades, she had watched this one and others like him.

As she stepped back within the cabin, she kept an eye on the bristled-tail creature which scrambled bravely across the cleared earth from the shelter of the trees. He chittered warningly at her before gathering his booty and scurrying back.

"You know, he's not a bad neighbor at that," Edward murmured over her head, his hands coming to rest on her shoulders. "Emmett could take lessons."

She covered her hands with hers. "Emmett's a good fella. He is. I think you have a terrific family." It had taken her a while to accept that appellation for them, but she had. The Volturi were a coven; the Cullens, a family.

"They're your family too, Bella." She did not entirely trust that, yet, but they were being patient with her. She couldn't put a finger on what it was that didn't seem to click for her. She loved the Cullens. Edward nuzzled her hair and hummed contentedly. "Ready to run?"

"Yeah." It was Monday morning. "Ready for school?" she teased, twining her arms about his neck and shoulders.

"Yeah, and then tonight we're doing the family hunt."

Bella nodded as she drew a maple-hued cashmere turtleneck from the armoire. In addition to that bit of furniture, she and her mate had acquired a few other pieces. Antiques, really. Since their joining on Christmas of 2003, almost a year and a half ago, the cabin had undergone a series of subtle alterations.

To alleviate their initial separation anxiety, Edward had agreed to join her in their cabin for most of the time; days spent with the family often. Most of Bella's patrolling took place at night, so he joined her there and they parted ways when he was "in school." School attendance was his job in a subtle sort of way. He listened to the thoughts of the townspeople, hearing what suspicions might be in play in the small community. His ability had been able to warn the family when there was too much overt suspicion that was too close to the truth.

"So they think we're weird, pairing off as adopted siblings. That's not dangerous, not really. Since our records indicate that some of us were adopted later, it's not considered 'wrong' by the current moral climate in this country." He had shrugged. "And it's nothing remotely supernatural, even if it's considered a little creepy."

"I still think it's less stressful patrolling the borders," she had countered.

With a smile, he'd agreed and off they ran. And so they had continued. Sharing stories of their existences, tastes in music and film. Her preference for the traditional ways of doing things versus his efforts to "lure her into the twenty-first century."

These efforts had resulted in a subdued, blanket modernization of the tiny cabin. From the exterior, it was much the same, since she refused to allow satellite dishes or cable for television. Edward had rigged up other means of entertainment, recharging batteries at the Cullen house and storing them at the cabin.

They compromised. The borders were safe. She was, slowly, integrating.

Both of them being dressed in appropriate clothing for the mild spring weather – Edward to go to the Cullens and thence to school and Bella to patrol – they left the cabin. Moving more slowly, Bella generally monitored one section of the forest or another, making sure never to look conspicuous on the daytime runs.

She had only just watched Edward disappear from view when she heard the heartbeat.

Something about it struck Bella as familiar. _The wolves' hearts used to beat like that, in that rhythm. To maintain their elevated body temperature. _Bella drew in a breath and debated, briefly, calling Edward. _No, no. Best to figure out what's going on. Who is this? Can't be Quil. He's too old, isn't he?_

The legends did say that even as an old man, Taha Aki had changed at great need to protect his people. "Quil?" she called softly. If it were him, he'd hear her.

There was no answer. She resolved to wait, tension poising her limbs. Only by conscious effort did she remain still and not run into the woods to investigate. Douglas, after a loud, alarmed _chirrup_, hurried in a spiral up a Sitka spruce, not being nearly as disciplined as she was. Her smile was fleeting though, and disappeared entirely once long strides came sliding through the undergrowth.

The form of a tall man grew in visibility. She recognized him. "Hello! We don't see too many folks up this way." Sam Uley. Almost two years since she had last seen him up close, it was apparent to her he had grown even after reaching his technical adulthood. Now well over six feet in height, he had filled out...considerably. She was forcefully reminded of Levi and smiled.

Cautious steps brought him a bit nearer. "You live here." He took a deep breath and – not quite taking his eyes from Bella – seemed to scan the immediate vicinity. Then he shook his head and blew air out his nose. "Did something die?" Eyes narrowed, he asked, "did you forget to _bury_ something, maybe?"

Bella refused to take offense. Something was tickling at her brain as she cocked her head at Levi's great-grandson. "No... Have you been up here, before?"

He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Not too close, but yeah. You know, you're not as big a secret as you think, wolf-woman."

"I've heard the stories." Bella sighed a little. "What brings you here, today?"

After another visual sweep, Sam Uley uncrossed his arms and seemed to try to look more at ease. He just succeeded in looking – to Bella's eyes – rather endearingly awkward. Still she was concerned, especially when he got that "I've got a bad smell in my nose" expression on his handsome features.

"I smelled something off, so I wanted to check it out. I've been listening to the Legends – Old Quil has been pulling a few of us aside to make sure we know all the Tribal Yahoo stuff." He rolled his eyes a little though stern lines bracketed his lips. "And I knew someone was up here anyway, so I thought I'd come see for myself if I was right." He aimed a glare right at her. "I didn't expect it to be someone young, though."

"Whom were you expecting?"

He started rocking in an agitated manner and she got a whiff from the disturbed air that wafted back to her sensitive nose.

"My great-grandfather's...widow."

Shocked, she could only stare at him. "What?"

He started pacing and internally, Bella braced herself. She had a "very bad feeling about this." Han Solo had said that in a _Star Wars_ film a long time ago and it was still strangely apt in an everyday sort of way. She brought her entire focus on the muscles that rippled under Sam's skin, on the way his odor suddenly spiked. Mangy fur, rotten meat, old milk and vinegar. It was exactly the same. Stronger since she hadn't been used to smelling it. Not for decades.

_Oh no. Damn it! _

Sam seemed to half-explode with resentment. "My great-grandfather's widow! The woman he abandoned my grandfather for. The woman he gave everything up for. He ran off and left my grandfather and he was killed and my father ran off and –"

"Sam, come on. That wasn't your great-grandfather's fault. What if he just loved that woman very much? What if he didn't abandon your grandfather? What if he put his life on hold until your grandfather was an adult and gave him his blessing?"

While she had been speaking, her voice pleading and soft, he had stepped closer to her, head angled as if trying to judge just how much he could trust her. He inhaled, snorted air out his nose again. "Huh. Sweet. Like I've been smelling up by here lately. I thought it was old-lady perfume, you know?"

Bella briefly closed her eyes. "No. No perfume, Sam."

"How'd you know my name?" he demanded, suspicion vibrating from him.

She steeled herself. "I know you. I was at your high school graduation."

"Too sweet," he muttered. "White skin." He straightened his shoulders and slowly extended a hand. "I don't know your name."

Her breath came fast with hope and terror intermingled. Still, she took his hand – with his scent, he was already changing. In spite of everything she had tried, he was probably already experiencing the heightened temperature and the enormous growth and maybe even the quick healing. "Bella. Bella Swan." His skin scorched her, but she held on to him and decided to make a clean confession. "Bella Swan _Uley_. I – I'm the one your great-grandfather married."

"No!"

And there it was. The anger, the fear, the pure fury in his eyes changed to pain – intense, terrifying pain as his nose elongated, his limbs stretched. The bones dislocated, shifted, changed. His skin sprouted fur. His nails became claws and his clothes were shredded to fly in fluttering, peaceful counterpoint to the violence of his transformation.

With every good intention in her mind, Bella slowly, slowly stepped a bit closer and tried to make her voice heard over his considerable, noisy anguish. "Sam. Sam Uley. Sam. I know you, Sam. You're still you. I know you can hear me and understand me. Stop howling."

The huge creature was a light-absorbing black in color, so that he looked like a deadly shadow as he crouched on the ground. Glistening nostrils flared, his lips rippling back to reveal knife-like canines that gleamed. He was made to kill vampires.

And it seemed, with a snarl and a wrinkling of his snout, that he recalled that just at the wrong time. She jumped out of his way, but he was young, powerful and uncontrolled, unknowing of his own strength. He caught her but she arched and leapt over his back. On his return run, she waited for him.

_Oh, Levi. Please forgive me, if you're watching._

Sam Uley, jaws agape and saliva streaming from his parted lips, came at her again, his body a powerful weapon. His growl shivered the air. Bella braced herself and, as he leapt for a crushing biting/clawing combination, she stepped lightly aside and grabbed his leg as he flew by.

His yelp made her wince and cringe. "I'm sorry. I know. I dislocated your leg. I know. I have to though, to make you stop. I'm your friend, Sam. And now that you're down, I'm going to tell you why you need to not kill me, okay?"

Apparently unfazed by the pain, he rolled his body anyway, chomping at her hands.

"Sam! Stop it! Come on, I'm trying to help you!"

His roar was not understanding.

When he ignored the immense pain he had to be in, since his hip joint was still out of socket, and pulled his body away from her to try again, Bella apologized and, with venom standing in her eyes, caught at the leg he used to claw at her, breaking it with a final-sounding snap.

**[+]**

"Jasper?"

"Hey, Bella. Everything all right? Edward forget his phone?"

"No. I need you to do whatever it is you do to keep him from listening for a moment."

A pause and then Jasper spoke rapidly, with an echo that probably meant he had cupped his hand around the phone. "What'd you do, Miss Bella?"

"I think I may have found a way to get Aro off my back. But you'll have to do it, like he asked." The letter Aro had written to Carlisle Cullen had been all surface-smooth and relatively business-like, but menace had fairly oozed from every line of ink. Her sire liked doing things "the old fashioned way."

Jasper muttered a few things the average Southern Gentleman didn't utter out loud, but said he'd cut school and be right over.

Bella returned to where a subdued Sam awaited her. The sun shone high over them and the werewolf often had to cover his eyes. "I know... It's weird for me, too. I am sorry I had to break your leg."

He whined and she winced before gently cupping his muzzle. "And I know I stink to you. And you're stuck here while you're healing, but I promise you it's for a good cause. Now, I am going to need you to help me. Because we're going to stage something and it's not going to be pleasant for me, either."

The black eyes glittered and his muscles rippled. He whined again and chuffed at her, as if he would speak. For a moment, her chest ached. "I have a mate now, but I remember being married to your great-grandfather. He would be so sorry you're having to deal with this. But I won't let you go through it alone. I heard how scared you were. I remember Levi telling me how it had been for him, back in 1936."

Sam the wolf curled a sound out of his throat that sounded like a question to her. "I met your great-grandfather, Levi, in 1944," she began. And, while she waited for Jasper to find her and the werewolf, she told the unwilling Protector about her history with his people, and her more personal history.

"So that's why I'm here. I protect the land. I've learned to fight with your...your kind, Sam. I'll teach you how to fight mine. Last time, there were four in the Pack. Old Quil was one, and when you figure out how to find your human skin again, he'll be able to tell you everything you don't already know."

With that, Bella slipped the cell phone from her pocket. "I better call him and let him know."

**[+]**

The scene was not going to be pretty. "He has to see me dismembered, Jasper," Bella insisted. Quil was on his way and she wanted this done before the innate healing of the werewolf mended his legs. The dislocated one still had to hurt, and Bella had apologized many times, but this was the only way she could think of to protect the werewolves as well as herself, while keeping the Cullens in the Volturi's good graces.

Jasper had his hands on his hips and shook his head. "I cannot believe you. Hey, Sam, is it? I apologize for Miss Bella, here, but she's on the mark. As soon as I see her underneath you, I'll run and she'll put herself back together and get you back together." Jasper eyed Bella with a wry expression. "And then I'm gonna make myself scarce, as I'm sure you can understand." He approached Bella, his face now stern. "Right now, tell me what you want me to do, so when your mate looks in my mind, he'll see it right. Just talk to him, why don't you."

Swallowing down her nervousness, Bella met Jasper's eyes. "Edward, sweetheart. I love you. I am going to make this right. I've asked for this." She bit the rest of the words off with a gasp, realizing that she couldn't even explain it through Jasper, because he'd see. Instead, she vowed to call Edward. "You, Jasper, better clear the hell out of here before my mate finds you." It was the best way she could tell him to let her call Edward first.

He nodded. "I plan on it, Miss Bella."

And then, without warning, he brought both his arms to her shoulders and ripped off her arms.

Pain! Excruciating! For the sake of her sire's probing gift, she screamed and even howled, to be joined by Sam, who was still on his side, twitching as she had explained her whole plan to him already.

It was really, really hard, having to tell him to submit to such treatment for his own good. He didn't know her, he hated her guts, probably, but he had had no choice at first but to listen.

Was he cooperating by choice, now? Or because she had caused him more injuries than she knew?

In a flurry of movement, Bella was flung at the wolf, who growled and appeared to grip her in his jaws to shake her before rolling over on her. Jasper leapt high into the air and landed –

– on, but not on, the still-healing werewolf. Who howled and whined and then, when Jasper roared and gave the illusion of force, he slammed into the wolf.

Sam's body didn't move. Bella blessed his intelligence and willingness to be led by her. Maybe her long history with his people counted for something, after all. Jasper tossed a match in their general direction and ran away.

* * *

**A/N: Expect the final chapter at any time...!**

_**Off-topic: Information for the Twinklings Walk of Fame Awards as well as a poll for the Fandom Gives Back Autism Awareness Compilation are on my profile. Just in case you are interested in such things. :)**_


	21. Stability

**A/N: And here we are...the final chapter in this story. An epilogue will follow (because I'm partial to them, darn it) but the story itself closes in this chapter. Thanks to katmom for her sharp eye and SagaDevotee for her continued swoonage.**

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* * *

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**Chapter Twenty-One: Stability**

Sam put out the fire. Bella heard, but did not even _try_ to see how.

By the time "Old Quil" arrived, Sam was up and dragging himself around with three legs, his hip being still dislocated. Grumbling, cursing Cold Ones in general and Bella specifically, Old Quil still got her limbs for her and, using her cell phone (with which he was highly skilled, griping that it wasn't a "smart phone" and half-useless as it was), he called Edward while her limbs were fusing.

Bella, of course, heard both sides of the conversation.

"Edward Masen Cullen. This is Quil Ateara."

"Hello, Mr. Ateara. Where's Bella?" The voice, though coming from a small speaker, communicated Edward's determined effort to control his initial worry. "Did she forget her phone? Drop it on her patrol?"

"Now before I get into that," the Elder began.

"Quil! Please just tell him I'm more or less okay, okay?"

"I heard her! What happened? Bella!"

Quil had laid her out flat on the ground while he positioned her legs and arms for her. She could feel the pain and burn of their reattachment but couldn't get up to get her phone. She just kept saying, "Please?" over and over while Quil huffed and growled in his own way as he slowly worked his old body to a seated position on the dirt.

"Just a moment, there, young Edward. She's fine but can't use her arms just now. I'm gonna put this by her ear, but you let her talk, you hear? She's got good cause for what she did and you have to listen to her just so to make it work right."

"Put her on!" Edward demanded, his voice hard and flat.

"I'm here, Edward. I'm here. I'm fine. I need you to know two things. One, Sam Uley phased for the first time today."

"Bella! Sweetheart! Are you all right? Did you see him? Did he hurt you? I'll be right there –"

"Wait." She had to smile at the love in Edward's voice. "You know how Alice said she had seen the Volturi coming and then everything went all black and fuzzy at the edges?"

"Riiiiight..."

"Okay. I had to make a decision today. And I had to – to fight with Sam Uley. And Jasper. And in his head, it's going to look like he ripped me apart and set me on fire and –"

Edward's roar would have made her ears hurt if he'd been within a mile of her.

"Shut the hell up, Cullen!" Quil shouted into the phone. "She's here and talking to you and she needs you to get here and I need you to set Sam's leg –"

"– And I need you not to see or speak to anyone in the family until after the Volturi have come and gone."

Edward's breath came heavily across their connection. "I'm coming. And we really have to talk about your impulse control."

She was laughing when Quil flipped the phone to land on her stomach.

**[+]**

"So, about my impulse control," Bella murmured over Edward's hip. She skimmed her lips up his torso, feeling him shudder underneath her movements. "Complaining anymore, are we?"

"No," he allowed, gripping her by her perfectly-healed arms. She would always bear scars, but she counted it a worthy price. "Not today." He winked at her. "But it's early."

They had remained in seclusion since she had Jasper fake her death. Again. Aro's gift would of course uncover that she and Edward were mated, so that he "set himself on fire on her pyre" would be acceptable. Of course his family hadn't seen it. None of them could bear to and that they hadn't seen him since his reported death was a truth. Old Quil had brought news to them of the deaths of two Cold Ones and the only werewolf left on Tribal Lands.

Bella rather felt that her old friendly adversary was amused to still be a part of the challenge. Protect the Nation. Protect the Reservation. Protect the People.

Sam was nearby as well.

Bella trained him how to fight with tooth and claw. Edward, finding in the Quileute's mind his comprehension of the situation and willingness to learn, had served as interpreter. It had taken a few days for Sam to figure out how to find his humanity, so he had had to learn to hunt with Bella and Edward – but only once.

"No. Not doing that again. I'll find myself. I will." Edward's voice, Sam's words. In less than twenty-four hours after the hunt, the young man had found his skin and had put on the clothing Quil Ateara had left for that eventuality.

Now, he could phase with relative ease.

Edward still stiffened at the beginning of every training session where Bella taught him what Levi taught her. He relaxed though, each time, as he grew accustomed again to her throwing herself in the path of what his instinct perceived as an enemy.

"I told your mother that you're all right. You're on a spiritual journey, seeking the Old Ways," Quil had said only the day before. "She's not a fool, you know."

"What about Leah?" Sam had asked, his face set in regretful lines. "She's going to hate me."

Quil sighed and rubbed at his jaw in the warmth of the cabin. Though it was late spring, the air was still cool at night. "She loves you, Sam. Maybe you'll be lucky and that'll be enough."

Bella caught his eye and nodded. "Maybe it will."

"How long are we stuck here?"

Edward caught Bella's hand in his between their two chairs. "I am waiting for confirmation that the Volturi have come and gone."

"How?" Sam inquired, looking bewildered. "You said that anything they think or do will be found out by their mindreader."

"It's true. So you know how I have been heading out to the border?"

Sam nodded. Bella and Quil had made the decision for Sam not to run patrol yet. They couldn't risk his distinctive odor being caught by any noses save theirs. Edward's scent, though, would not be quite as suspect as the "presumption" was that he would have been running like a desperate vampire whose mate had been slaughtered.

"Well, one of my siblings is out every night as well. Just thinking over the events of the day."

"How will they keep their – their minds from this Italian guy?"

Bella smiled and reached out for him with her free hand. His overwhelming body temperature and smell did not put her off, not once she had grown used to it. It was a scent similar to Levi's and was as such welcome to her. Sam had come – on the day she had had to wound him and help him and reassure him, on the day he had phased for the first time – to develop a curiously strong bond with her. He had been in a position to wound her but he hadn't. And over the past several days, they had come to trust one another implicitly.

"Edward's sister has a remarkably strong mind. She was able to keep Edward out almost at will, simply by..."

"Being stubborn," Edward supplied when she faltered.

"And she'll let you know?"

"That's the plan."

Quil snorted, but then turned serious. "Best laid plans of mice and men..."

"Robert Burns. I know that one," Bella murmured.

The fire snapped and popped and a burned-through branch fell into the pile of ash at the floor of the fireplace. Bella stiffened as she always did and Edward kissed the back of her hand as _he_ always did. Whenever that happened – every single time – her thoughts shot for an instant to the hand's-breadth emptiness on her back where her flesh used to be.

She had, over the course of the days, told Sam about what had happened to her a hundred years ago on an entirely different continent. He had been angry, but not as much as Edward had. But angry enough that she had heard him muttering to himself about wanting to rip _their_ flesh from _their_ bodies and see how they liked it.

When Sam got up to pace now, the muscles under his skin rippling, that was the signal that it was time to train. To funnel his power and energy into something constructive, even while practicing destruction.

"Hang on, Sam," Bella cautioned as she hurried to run out the door ahead of her temporary guest. "Let's get us all out before you go all furry on me."

The imposing fellow just grunted an acknowledgment before adding, "I only phased in here that one time."

Edward laughed shortly. "Good thing the chairs were replaceable."

Smiling, they left the cabin, Old Quil following, leaning heavily on his carved walking stick. Edward hooked one of the straight-backed chairs for the Elder and set it up next to the house so that Quil could relax.

Sam dropped trou after Bella turned with a smile tugging at her lips. She winked at Edward – her mate had come so far with her. From not wanting to have her fulfill her part of the Treaty to helping train a newly phasing werewolf, Edward Masen Cullen was a marvel.

"All right, Sam. Let's warm up." They circled one another, feinting and lunging. She attacked, he repelled.

"You know, you'll never find another one like her," Quil opined from his seat.

Edward, leaning against the wall next to him, said, "I know. She's my mate."

"Still think you oughta marry her. She's part Makah, you know."

"Leave it, Quil," Bella called from the ground where she had rolled to get out from under Sam airborne leap.

"I will not. He should marry you. Like the others."

They bantered about it back and forth, Bella vowing to ignore them. She was still not accustomed to all the forms and rituals that the Cullens subjected themselves to as pseudo-members of the local population of humans. Why a wedding would matter to them –

"I _plan_ on asking her, all right!"

Edward's exasperated shout surprised Bella so much that she froze as Sam spun to knock her off balance. "Hey!" she protested, flying through the air to hit a tree.

Sam chuffed his amusement and she rolled her eyes at him. "Fine. Take a break."

Crossing to Edward, she fisted her hands on her hips and stared at him. "What? What did you say?"

Edward looked concerned, but then he smiled after studying her face for a moment. Taking her hands, he squeezed them firmly. "I said I plan on asking you to marry me. I just wanted you to feel more at ease with my family before I did."

Memories swept over her. "Being mates isn't enough?"

"It is, and if you have some serious objection to being husband and wife instead of just mates, I get that. You're – you've not spent time in the human world. But Bella," he went on, stepping more closely to her and apparently ignoring their company, "for me? It would mean a great deal to be able to stand in front of our families and become husband and wife."

"It really would." She could see the molten sincerity in his golden eyes, feel it pulsing, practically, from his body. "All right. If it's that important, sure." She grinned and felt her own joy bubble within her. Being married was a rite of passage, an important one in some places, and perhaps it was even among their kind, if this was such a significant matter for him. If it made him so happy – which it obviously did – then it made her happy, too.

His laugh filled her heart. "It _is_. Thank you."

Quil pushed himself to his feet and slapped Edward on the back. "About damn time, too."

Sam barked and Bella had to laugh when he barked again.

"What? Ready to go again?"

Sam howled, and it was not a playful sound. At all.

"They're here," Edward whispered. "Everyone. They're here. Alice is practically shouting to me. Aro, Renata, Alec, Jane and Felix. Alec! _Felix_," he repeated, the venom practically dripping from his jaw. "They're the ones who –"

"Yes. Please, Edward. Please don't try to avenge me. I killed Corin. It's not the same, but I took from them, too."

"Bella!"

"No! Promise me!"

He set his jaw. "I am _not_ going to promise you that. I will love you until the world ends, Bella, but don't ask _that_ of me."

The power in his quiet words silenced her for a moment. Then she nodded. "All right. I won't. Just – try. Okay?"

"Fine. Now get Quil inside."

"Sam!"

With a start, they realized that the werewolf was no longer in the small clearing. Quil snorted as she lifted him bodily to bring him inside the cabin. "He's strong, Sam is. Don't you worry. He was born to protect this land, Isabella. And we've taught him well. Don't worry about him."

The sounds of many footsteps, different strides and subdued discussions swept to them under the variegated canopy of the trees.

"Edward! You're not dead after all. I rather suspected as much."

From within the cabin, Bella froze, one hand on the back of Quil's current chair.

"On the contrary, Aro. I died in 1918."

A polite chuckle sounded from the northeastern edge of the clearing. Quil's heartbeat was loud in Bella's ear. She knew the Guard could hear it.

"She's here, Master." Felix's voice. "Bella?" he called, his tone friendly and open. It made her both want to weep and break the wall. "Come out. Don't make me tear down your home to find you."

"Yes, my dear Isabella. You do need to answer for your crimes."

"Sorry, Miss Bella. I tried."

Hearing one of the Cullens clinched it for her. "I know you did, Jasper. Edward? I'm coming out."

With a quick signal to Quil to keep quiet, she grabbed her Zippo patrol-lighter and slid it into her pocket before leaving the cabin through its only door. Edward waited for her, his hand open. She slipped her fingers through his and joined him at his side as they faced the four members of the Volturi who had come all this way.

Felix's expression was rueful, Jane's anticipatory. Alec, though, was clearly annoyed as his focus slipped to where Bella's hand joined with Edward's. Seeing that reminded Bella that she needed to protect this family – Edward's family. He wanted her to be his wife, to carry his name, so they were her family, too.

A sudden sense of belonging swept through her and, in spite of the circumstances, she smiled. Jasper chuckled, probably feeling her unexpected goodwill. Alec, though, grabbed Jane's hand.

_No!_ Bella thought, throwing up her shield almost aggressively. Stretching it, moving it to cover not just her mind and Edward's but also to protect the other Cullens. _No. You will not touch them._

Edward heard her, being under her shield, but she shook off his inquisitive look. Alec, appearing smug, waited for his gift to take effect. When it didn't, he growled. "Master?"

Aro steepled his fingers contemplatively. "Isabella. Isabella. I heard the howl of the werewolf, child. You cannot lie about that, though you have certainly tried to deceive me on many fronts over the past hundred years. This cannot be allowed, child. Surely you understand. It will cause some pain to your mate, but he knows our rules."

"I have broken no law."

"There is a human male in that cabin behind you. Surely he knows what you are? I have gleaned this information from Edward already."

"He does, but he was a _werewolf_. He is not going to tell. He was once a Protector of this land. As I am now."

"So you _do_ have an alliance!"

Bella focused with some effort to maintain her shield and her temper. "This is my home, Aro. I am no threat to you if you leave me and my families alone."

"Impossible. You're rogue, Isabella. I cannot have gifted rogue vampires disregarding directives. Killing Guards. Leaving _my_ service!" With a gesture, all hell broke loose.

Felix – knowing the limits of her gift – advanced toward her easily. With a shout, Jasper leapt to attack him, followed immediately by Emmett. They brought him down, Jasper's teeth at the larger vampire's throat.

Rosalie, not to be outdone, went for Jane who had tossed off her hood in preparation for causing someone severe pain. "No! Rosalie, no!" Bella called.

Her distraction caused her shield to contract to protect her own mind and hers alone, leaving the rest of the family vulnerable to Alec's renewal of his talent of sensory deprivation. While the Cullens struggled with that – Jasper and Emmett being behind Alec at that point and therefore out of the way of the invisible influence – Alec himself jumped after Bella who had only just renewed her shield around Edward's mind.

All of this happened in about the space of two of Old Quil's heartbeats. Renata had gripped Aro's arm and – Bella noted out the corner of her eye – Carlisle had actually come to stand in front of the Volturi leader, as if to ward off his family from hurting the red-eyed vampire.

Well, Aro had named him "friend." Damn their eyes.

"No!" Edward's cry of pain brought her focus back tightly upon her mate. With a shout of her own, Bella flashed to Jane, to make her stop hurting Edward. Alec made a triumphant huffing sound and was on her, Bella, at that moment.

"Now," the evil-eyed mutilating vampire breathed. "More than just a bite, this time."

Bella struggled, tried to fight as she had been taught, but tiny Jane joined her brother – the two were practically one devil-minded whole – and Bella was pinned between. Unable to move or fight back, she dropped her entire mental shield.

_Edward! I love you!_

Jane, the sadist, kept her mental skills on Edward, who clamped down on himself. He shot Bella a look filled with complete devotion, even in the agony which he was sustaining.

Carlisle was pleading with Aro, Esme, Alice and Rosalie still languished under Alec's influence.

Bella hated that it would end here. After all this time.

"Quil! I'm sorry!" she yelled before steeling herself to be dismembered and burnt.

Jane's gleeful crimson gaze would be the last thing she ever saw, so Bella decided to spit in it. She had just done so, too, when a mighty, vibrating roar emerged just behind the visiting vampires.

Black! Black and lethal and furry and leaping, all teeth and claws and power! Sam Uley emerged from the trees, his open mouth unerringly encompassing Alec's head, ripping it off with a horrific screech.

Jane screamed, her concentration broken at last. Edward got up and threw her down, taking advantage of her grief to subdue her. He looked as if he'd end her, but Carlisle intervened, as he did in the case of Felix. Edward did, though, rip Alec apart, gaining no inconsiderable satisfaction from that, if the set of his mouth was anything to go by...

Carlisle was at Esme's side while Sam loomed over Felix. Bella moved her shield around Renata, keeping that woman from influencing anyone regarding their intentions toward Aro. Jasper and Emmett had their wives in their arms in no time.

While Alec burned and Jane huddled in a sobbing bundle of cloak and dark dress under Edward's guard, Carlisle blew out a breath and confronted Aro in his own manner.

"Old friend," he began, his voice oddly implacable for a peaceable fellow. But he was, Bella knew, the true leader of his family, his coven, for good reason. "This really must stop."

With a growling werewolf taking up much visible space and his trusted guard lying on the ground or floating upward in the form of purple fumes, Aro had little choice but to listen to his _old friend_. Bella gripped Edward's hand, both of them dividing their attention between Jane and Aro. The leader of the Volturi pressed his lips tightly together. "I concur," he said at last.

Within the cabin, a rustling sound could be heard. Bella whimpered, hoping that Quil would just stay put, for once in his life.

Carlisle heeded the possible human incursion not at all, apparently. "Isabella is Edward's mate. She is a part of my family."

"She has destroyed without provocation and allied herself with the enemy."

"Surely you can see that this werewolf is not a Child of the Moon. It's broad daylight and the moon is not in its fullness at this time. He is of a different type of werewolf. He may choose when and where he becomes like this. He is not our enemy. And Bella will not return to Volterra, I am fairly certain. She has always only wanted to live at peace and protect those with whom she has a Treaty."

His tone was mild but firm. He sounded eminently reasonable as he continued. "Isabella is of no threat to you or the Volturi. Bella?"

"Yes, Carlisle. No, I'm no threat to my sire or the Volturi. I'll leave them alone if they'll leave me alone."

"And what of the," Aro paused, his face contorting in overplayed distaste. "The werewolves?"

"There is only one!"

Bella gasped and turned, hearing the steady thumping of the Elder's heart. "Quil!"

Sam made a rumbling sound deep in his chest, but the old one was not dissuaded from approaching. His walking stick securely in hand, he still stood tall and proud, a legend himself, once.

"Quil..." Bella had no words for him.

"There is only one wolf. But before, we had three and then four. I was one," he stated with firm dignity. "Bella has helped to train this one, so he is now able to fulfill his role," he continued with something near a smirk as he nodded at the pile of ash. "The Council will be satisfied."

Carlisle jumped on the possible opportunity with a glad smile, Bella saw. "There. So Bella will not be needed to work with the werewolves, thus eliminating your concern."

The Cullens held still and said not a word as Aro stood in thought. Jane's sobs were heard, as was Felix's under-the-breath muttering, but that was all.

At last, Aro made a ridiculous show of tossing up his hands. Bella wanted to roll her eyes, but she didn't. This was not the time for dramatics from anyone save the lord of the Volturi. "Isabella. You are banned from Volterra. We will act as if you've never existed. In return, you will refrain from allying yourself with our enemies. You will leave their territory and remain with your mate. If you deviate from either of these restrictions, you will be burned on sight. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Aro. And my mate? He's marrying me. I will be Isabella Swan _Cullen_ on your pardon."

"My...pardon?"

"I want it in writing."

There was a huge silence and then –

"Oh, Edward! You're getting _married_!"

Esme could not have been more radiant.

**[+]**

Twilight.

The beach setting was uncomplicated, as was the wedding party. Bella did not hold with a great deal of formality, so simple gauze and hanging flowers were all she allowed Esme and Alice to do in terms of decorating. A table to one side held the recently-signed documents that restructured Bella's life in its entirety. She was still not sure how she felt about that, but Edward promised that they would ease her into it slowly.

No longer a Protector, she was still able to have the last of her Quileute family with her at her wedding. Old Quil stood at Bella's side, his imprinted wife Laura waiting not far away, near Carlisle.

. . .

_Quil had looked peaceful, leaning on the length of carved wood that was always with him. "So you're moving. Not gonna be around so much. No more rubber bands on my front door."_

"_Looks that way." She didn't want to get all sappy. This was Quil. The fella who had shocked her in the river so long ago. The youngster she'd gone toe-to-toe with, once upon a decade. Theirs was not an emotionally-fraught relationship._

_He nodded, making throat-clearing sounds. "So I guess I get to see you get married again, eh?" He didn't look her in the eye._

_She focused on the tops of the trees as Edward spoke with the Cullens after Aro and what was left of the Guard took off with Carlisle back to the Cullens' home. "Looks that way. Can you do me a favor?"_

"_What?"_

"_Would you...would you give me away?" _

_Tears made a sudden appearance in the Elder's dark eyes. "I'd be honored."_

. . .

Remembering those moments after what might be termed her liberation, Bella gripped Quil's elbow with measured firmness. "Thank you for doing this."

"Eh. It'll be good to have the forest to ourselves again. Cold Ones stinkin' it up."

"Yeah. And I won't have to wear through the soles of my sneakers watching out for you."

"Yeah."

"You'll be all right?" she whispered.

He patted her hand. "Yep. Let's go."

* * *

**A/N: Epilogue to follow...**


	22. Epilogue

A/N: Thank you for coming with me. See you down below.

* * *

**Epilogue**

**[+]2044[+]**

Wind turbines broke up the coastline's former rustic beauty. Small water turbines transformed energy as well. There was a constant, subtle hum in the air as Edward and Bella Cullen emerged from the shadowed area still guarded by trees. They wore dark denim trousers, both of them, and dark sweaters. Her hair fell with spirit around her shoulders, while his caught the misty moonlight and shone faintly with hints of red and gold.

They approached the bonfire, where a man who spoke with calm authority was telling the legends to a group of younger men. All of them tall and powerfully built, they listened with intensity.

The storyteller broke off his words in mid-sentence and flashed a glare toward the newcomers. "Stop. Right there."

Accordingly, the pale ones did stop. But Bella held up her hand. "We know you."

A strange, complicated smile slowly spread the storyteller's lips. "Great-grandmother."

She laughed lightly. So did he.

Motioning to the younger ones to stay by the fire, Sam Uley jogged noiselessly across the rocks and sand. "It's been a while."

"Yes." Bella took one of his hands, the other holding fast to Edward. "I just wanted to see...to see how you were."

"The same," he said with a grimace. "I don't know how you did it, Bella. Running the borders alone. We have four in our Pack, now. None of them will ever have to phase alone the first time." He embraced her hand once with both his own before letting her go. "I would have gone insane if I'd been on my own. So thank you."

Edward wrapped an arm around her. "She's the best."

"Quil? Old Quil?"

Sam laughed with a quiet tenderness. "Old Quil...died in his sleep. The year after you got married. The _new_ Old Quil is...old. He's got kids and grandkids." Sam smiled. "It's been good, Bella."

Edward watched him carefully and then answered an unspoken question. "No, we're not coming back. Much as we like it here, we know now that we're a severe disruption."

Sam relaxed, his shoulders more loose under his skin. "Good."

"I just had to come by...on our way...to somewhere else," Bella said softly, memories rich in her voice. "I wish you all the best, Sam."

Edward shook his hand, too. "Thank you. Thank you for making it possible for my Bella to be with me. For saving her. I never got to say that."

Sam grinned, his teeth a bright white in the shadow of his features. "We're even."

Without another word, the Quileute werewolf turned and ran back to the men in his charge. His Pack. After a moment, Edward kissed Bella's forehead and whispered, "All right?"

"Yeah. Thank you. I do love you."

"Then let's go home."

**THE END**

**

* * *

**

**Thank you again. Thank you for joining me in an unusual AU. **

**Thank you to all the wolf-girls who were excited to see Bella with a werewolf...and stayed even when he died and mourned with her. **

**Thank you to all the vamp-girls who somehow found Levi to be a good hero, in spite of his lupine tendencies. All of you who told me I made it work despite it all, and who were sad but still happy to see Edward come on the scene.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, who recommended, who tweeted about the updates. **

**Thank you to all the brave souls who journeyed long in time if not in distance to follow Bella, the Pale Protector of the Nation. **

**I've so enjoyed writing this, I cannot begin to tell you. ****Sharing it with you has been fabulous. And, if you're reading this long after this story is complete, know that I'm really glad _you_ are here, too. :)**

**Keep an eye open for me...I'm not done fanficking. Check my profile for news on the Autism Awareness FGB Fundraiser, on contests, on any new stories I might have up my sleeves...**

**The Dread Fanficker Summers is still writing. ;-)**

**~LJ**


	23. Sideshot  When Jasper Meets Alice

_**We Know You**_

**Outtake/Secret Mini-scene**

**Posting here with the rest of the story in case you didn't get a chance to read it. This scene takes place in 1948, Philadelphia, or sometime off-camera during Chapter 7: Adjustments in We Know You.**

* * *

**When Jasper Met Alice**

It was the sense of vibrant expectation that tugged at his awareness, pulling him seductively toward the small diner in Philadelphia. Not that the scent of blood was not appealing all around him, but that kind of emotive outpouring was fascinating. Intriguing. Though his eyes were dark with a thirst he desperately avoided slaking, Jasper Whitlock pushed open the glass door of the six-table establishment and pinpointed exactly where his fascination began.

And his eyes widened in surprise. The golden eyes were what he saw first. Bella Of No Last Name came to mind. Pretty thing, a dainty brunette…

He liked dark-haired women, to be sure.

"You've kept me waiting," the even smaller, elfin-seeming woman murmured softly, her eyes huge and glowing in the faulty light of the overhead fixture. Her hair was black and cut closely to her tiny head. She wore clip-on earrings and seemed to vibrate where she sat.

He approached, his manners impeccable as always as he removed his hat with one hand and took her offered fingers in the other. "My apologies, ma'am."

And with that one touch, the world shifted. He gasped, knowing what this was because the emotion was something he had secretly longed for for almost a century. "Who are you?"

"I'm Mary Alice and I've been waiting for you for just about _forever_, Jasper Whitlock."

Lightning flashed right outside the window, drawing gasps from the two other patrons of the tiny diner. Jasper felt the peripheral emotions of awe and fear but ignored them. Offering his arm to the petite brunette he had just met, he asked, "Care to take a stroll?"

Thunder rolled but he still heard her affirmative. She left a cup of cooling coffee and a crumbled pastry on the table, along with a dollar bill.

He felt tongue-tied suddenly, as they left the diner. Rain rasped along rooftops; she lent him an umbrella. "For appearances."

"Of course, Miss Mary Alice."

"Alice. I call myself Alice," she insisted as her hand slipped confidingly in the crook of his arm.

"Where shall we go, Miss Alice?" he asked, not knowing what else to say. _I think I love you. Are we really mates? How did you know who I was? What kind of gift do you have?_

"Hunting," she said definitively, not looking at his face.

"Do you eat squirrel?" It was a ridiculous question and he winced even as it left his mouth.

Little Mary Alice halted abruptly at the mouth of an alley, her eyes round and mouth likewise. Jasper didn't even let himself think of all the things her present appearance made him want… "Squirrel? What made you think of squirrel?"

He winced visibly. "I met another vampire with golden eyes, once. She –"

Before he could finish his explanation, Mary Alice giggled and then erupted into peals of the most beautiful laughter ever to have graced his ears. "You teased her about eating squirrels! I didn't see that, but I see you telling me about it now."

Sidetracked by mention of her gift, he asked her about it and the rest of that rainy afternoon was spent in conversation.

The evening was something else entirely.


End file.
